The proper name for
taurine, revised from
Webster's rather archaic "Amido-Isethionic Acid", which (I'll admit) sounds better. The formula is H
2N-CH
2-CH
2-SO
3:
C SO3
/ \ /
N C
DOH! It seems
there's already a node about this, fool! Namely
taurin. It is attached to cholyl-CoA to form Tauro-
cholate - a bile acid. It also seems to have some strange effects on
ethanol metabolism (as does the related
cysteine). Not sure whether this is because it reacts with the alcohol or affects the breakdown enzymes (it's about the same size as ethanol, and could chemically modify
active site groups(?)).