Abstract
THE pathways for cysteine metabolism have been studied intensively, and a great deal is known about the many reactions which lead to the formation of sulphate. Most of the studies on cysteine have been mainly concerned with the fate of sulphur; but relatively few experimental results exist concerning the fate of the carbon chain. Recently, Fromageot and Chatagner1 have furnished proof of the existence of an enzyme, desulphinicase, in liver of rabbits. This enzyme is capable of liberating sulphurous acid from L-cysteine sulphinic acid. They considered the latter compound to be the most important intermediate in the conversion of organic sulphur to inorganic sulphur; they assumed that the splitting of sulphurous acid from L-cysteine sulphuric acid gave alanine as an intermediate. The formation of alanine from cysteine sulphinic acid has been demonstrated in rabbit liver extracts2.
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