Plants use 'unusual' microbial-like pathway to make essential amino acid

Purdue University researchers have discovered a microbial-like pathway in plants that produces phenylalanine, an amino acid that is a vital component of proteins in all living organisms.Plants mainly synthesize phenylalanine through a chain of chemical reactions that converts the organic acid arogenate to phenylalanine. But Purdue researchers demonstrated that plants also use an alternative pathway found in most microorganisms to make phenylalanine from phenylpyruvate.