Separation by high-performance liquid chromatography of alpha- and beta-amino acids: application to assays of lysine 2,3-aminomutase and leucine 2,3-aminomutase.

Several pairs of alpha- and beta-amino acids were well separated as the ortho-phthalaldehyde derivatives by reversed phase HPLC. These included alpha- and beta-lysine, leucine, tyrosine, serine, aminoisobutyric acid, and beta-hydroxyvaline and its positional isomer. The separation was applicable to assays of lysine 2,3-aminomutase and leucine 2,3-aminomutase. However, for unknown reasons, no leucine 2,3-aminomutase activity could be found in rat liver homogenate.