Casamino acids is a mixture of
amino acids and some very small
peptides obtained from acid
hydrolysis of
casein.
It is typically used in microbial
growth media. It has all the
essential amino acids except
tryptophan, which is destroyed by digestion with
sulfuric
Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formula ...
or
hydrochloric acid.
Casamino acids is similar to
tryptone
Tryptone is the assortment of peptides formed by the digestion of casein by the protease trypsin.
Tryptone is commonly used in microbiology to produce lysogeny broth (LB) for the growth of '' E. coli'' and other microorganisms. It provides a so ...
, the latter differing by being an incomplete
enzymatic hydrolysis with some
oligopeptides present, while casamino acids is predominantly free
amino acids.
Uses
Casamino acids supplies a completely hydrolyzed protein
nitrogen source. It contains a small amount of
cystine. Tryptophan and
vitamins are destroyed by the acid treatment. The remaining amino acids (in varying amounts) are a source of nutrients for various
microorganisms. Amino acids are highly
soluble and suitable for use in
tissue culture. Salt content is typically 30-40%. Casamino acids are either found in the Daptacel brand
DTaP vaccine or used in its manufacture.
Appearance
*
White to light
tan,
homogeneous
Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...
, free flowing powder
*Solubility (2%)
*Colourless to light
yellow,
clear in solution
References
Peptides
Microbiological media ingredients
{{Microbiology-stub