A-Oxoglutaric acid

Table 5.1 Example of organic acids produced commercially by micro-organisms organic adds considered in this chapter are labelled with. A related add, a-oxoglutaric acid, is easy to produce microbiologically but has no current end use succinic acid is produced chemically. Amino adds are beyond the scope of this chapter.

The other product of reaction (35) is a keto acid, whose further fate depends on the exact nature of the R-group in it. Reactions of the type of (34) are catalysed by amino acid Oxidases. The second reaction (35) is spontaneous and requires no enzyme. The most important of the amino acid oxidases is glutamic dehydrogenase, which converts glutamic into a-oxoglutaric acid (generating NADH2 in the process) (36) ... 

The a-oxoglutaric acid is of course a member of the citric acid cycle series of acids, and we have already described its fate. 

Thalictrum minus, T. minus var. adiantifolium, which contains thalifoline (2)/ Trichocereus werdermamianus and T. pachanoO The peyote cactus Lophophora williamsii) deserves special mention biogenetically important mescaline derivatives have been isolated the first N-ethylisoquinoline alkaloid (3) has been characterised and pyrrole derivatives, e.g., (4), have been identified. The isolation of (4) prompted the speculation that mescaline may incorporate a-oxoglutaric acid and thus may be involved in the Krebs cycle. ... 

M2. McArdle, B., The quantitative estimation of pyruvic and a-oxoglutaric acids by paper chromatography in blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. Biochem. J. 66, 144 (1957). 

Synonyms 2-Oxoglutaric acid a-Oxoglutaric acid 2-Oxopentanedioic acid... 

The 5 phosphoribosyl-l-pyrophosphate required for purine synthesis is obtained from ATP and ribose-5-phosphate by reaction (11.39). Glutamine, which is also required, is obtained from glutamic acid by reaction (11.44), and the latter is obtained from a - oxoglutaric acid by reaction (11.124). The last reaction links the Krebs cycle with amino acid metabolism. 

The acidic amino acids, aspartic acid and glutamic acid, represent the aminated forms of oxaloacetic and a-oxoglutaric acids respectively and have two carboxyl groups but only one amino group. Like other amino acids, when they are present in peptide chains the amino group... 

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