Glutamic Acid (Glu)

Glutamic acid is one of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids, and its codons are GAA and GAG. It is a non-essential amino acid. The carboxylate anions and salts of glutamic acid are known as glutamates. In neuroscience, glutamate is an important neurotransmitter which plays a key role in long-term potentiation and is important for learning and memory.

Glutamate is a key molecule in cellular metabolism. In humans, dietary proteins are broken down by digestion into amino acids, which serve as metabolic fuel for other functional roles in the body. A key process in amino acid degradation is transamination, in which the amino group of an amino acid is transferred to an α-ketoacid, typically catalysed by a transaminase. Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the vertebrate nervous system. Nerve impulses trigger release of glutamate from the pre-synaptic cell.