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Definition of "methionine" [methionine]

  • A sulfur-containing essential amino acid, C5H11NO2S, obtained from various proteins or prepared synthetically and used as a dietary supplement and in pharmaceuticals. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "methionine" in a sentence
  • "I also just learned that methionine is resistant to cytosine deamination, and it sets the reading frame."
  • "In intro bio (which I took almost forty years ago) we were told that the reason that methionine is the universal "start" amino acid (among prokaryotes) is that it can be modified in such a way (by the addition of an aldehyde functional group, yielding N-formylmethionine) as to set the direction of polymerization by limiting the addition of new amino acids to one end of the growing polypeptide chain."
  • "N-formyl-methionine is still used in the mitochondria (which is a direct descendant of prokaryotic symbiotes)."