Structure
Taurine is a derivative of cysteine, an amino acid which contains a thiol group. Taurine is one of the few known naturally occurring sulfonic acids. In the strict sense, it is not an amino acid, as it lacks a carboxyl group, but it is often called one, even in scientific literature. It does contain a sulfonate group and may be called an amino sulfonic acid. Small polypeptides have been identified which contain taurine, but to date no aminoacyl tRNA synthetase has been identified as specifically recognizing taurine and capable of incorporating it into a tRNA.
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