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SuperSweet - a resource on natural and artificial sweetening agents

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Item Type:Article
Title:SuperSweet - a resource on natural and artificial sweetening agents
Creators Name:Ahmed, J. and Preissner, S. and Dunkel, M. and Worth, C.L. and Eckert, A. and Preissner, R.
Abstract:A vast number of sweet tasting molecules are known, encompassing small compounds, carbohydrates, d-amino acids and large proteins. Carbohydrates play a particularly big role in human diet. The replacement of sugars in food with artificial sweeteners is common and is a general approach to prevent cavities, obesity and associated diseases such as diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Knowledge about the molecular basis of taste may reveal new strategies to overcome diet-induced diseases. In this context, the design of safe, low-calorie sweeteners is particularly important. Here, we provide a comprehensive collection of carbohydrates, artificial sweeteners and other sweet tasting agents like proteins and peptides. Additionally, structural information and properties such as number of calories, therapeutic annotations and a sweetness-index are stored in SuperSweet. Currently, the database consists of more than 8000 sweet molecules. Moreover, the database provides a modeled 3D structure of the sweet taste receptor and binding poses of the small sweet molecules. These binding poses provide hints for the design of new sweeteners. A user-friendly graphical interface allows similarity searching, visualization of docked sweeteners into the receptor etc. A sweetener classification tree and browsing features allow quick requests to be made to the database. The database is freely available at: http://bioinformatics.charite.de/sweet/.
Keywords:Amino Acids, Binding Sites, Carbohydrates, Factual Databases, Proteins, G-Protein-Coupled Receptors, Protein Structural Homology, Sweetening Agents
Source:Nucleic Acids Research
ISSN:0305-1048
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Volume:39
Number:Suppl. 1
Page Range:D377-D382
Date:1 January 2011
Official Publication:https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkq917
PubMed:View item in PubMed

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