The red blood pigment heme in higher organisms is normally synthesized from succinic acid 1 and glycine 2, the two building blocks being initially condensed pairwise to give 5-aminolevulinic acid 3. Incorporation experiments with duck blood showed that 3 can also be synthesized from L-glutamic acid 4. This route is reminiscent of the biosynthesis of chlorophyll.
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Franck et al. (1984) studied this question.
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