Abstract
Summary1. An investigation was carried out of the urinary excretion of β‐aminoisobutyric acid, glycine, alanine, taurine and glutamine amongst 109 Chinese living in Singapore.2. The frequency distribution histograms of excretion levels for the various amino acids indicated a well denned ‘high’ peak for β‐aminoisobutyric acid, whereas the other amino acids gave essentially unimodal distributions. The distribution histogram for β‐aminoisobutyric acid did not appear to be a bimodal one, as there was a fairly strong indication of a middle peak together with one or more lower ones.3. Subjects excreting 0–56 m‐moles of β‐aminoisobutyric acid/g. creatinine or more were considered to be ‘high’ excretors. The incidence of such subjects in the population sample taken was found to be 41‐3 %.4. An examination of the family data with respect to the segregation ratios for ‘low’ and ‘high’ excretors produced evidence in favour of the hypothesis that ‘high’ excretion of β‐amino‐isobutyric acid is determined by a single autosomal recessive gene (P > 0–3).A special acknowledgement is due to Lim Yen Heng for his technical assistance. This work embodies part of a thesis submitted by the author for the degree of Ph.D. in the University of Malaya.
Published Version
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