General Description
D-Glutamic acid is one of two stereoisomers of glutamic acid. The other enantiomer is L-glutamic acid, which is the natural form that is used in protein biosynthesis and metabolism. D-glutamic acid is found in the cell walls of bacteria as part of peptidoglycan.
Application
Biological activity has led to the use of D-glutamic acid for research into peptidoglycan synthesis and construction of new antibiotics that attack cell wall synthesis. D-glutamic acid may also be added to culture media to supply necessary D-amino acids for bacteria. D-glutamic acid is used in pharmaceutical research, including in drug design (examples of which include inhibitors of glutamate racemase), as a chiral building block for asymmetric synthesis, and also in neuroscience research into the possible role of D-amino acids.