Alanine protonation

Topol I. A., Burt S. K., Toscano M. and Russo N. Protonation of glycine and alanine proton affinities, intrinsic basicities and proton transfer path J. Mol.. Struct. (Theochem) 430 (1998) pp. 41-49. 

If a sample contains groups that can take up or lose a proton, (N//, COO//), then one must expect the pH and the concentration to affect the chemical shift when the experiment is carried out in an acidic or alkaline medium to facilitate dissolution. The pH may affect the chemical shift of more distant, nonpolar groups, as shown by the amino acid alanine (38) in neutral (betaine form 38a) or alkaline solution (anion 38b). The dependence of shift on pH follows the path of titration curves it is possible to read off the pK value of the equilibrium from the point of inflection... 

Let us first discuss the four proton transfers in class II. We sec that in the last column all four values lie near 0.016 electron-volt, indicating that the value of Jel is nearly the same in all four cases. On the other hand, we notice from Table 9 that, for both glycine and alaniue, t.he value of Kn is a hundred times smaller than I i. We must ascribe this to the presence of a larger in the basic, proton transfer. According to (143) this implies in (130) a greater value of 0. The observed values of 0 for Kb are near 90°C, while for KA the values of 0 are smaller, namely 53.9° for glycine and 44.8° for alanine. 

As another test, we may compare two proton transfers for which 0 happens to fall at almost the same temperature. For phosphoric acid Ki passes through a maximum at 43.1°, as shown in Table 13, while Ka for alanine falls at 44.8°, as mentioned above. According to (143) this implies that the ratio Jnm/Jei has roughly the same value in these two... 

A Chart of Occupied and Vacant Proton Levels. With two exceptions, each of the values of J given in Tables 9, 10, and 11 refers to the process where a proton is raised to the vacant proton level of an HsO molecule from a lower occupied proton level of a species of molecule or molecular ion in each case the value of J gives the amount by which this initially occupied level lies below the vacant level of H20. Obviously, using these values, it is at once possible to map out a chart of the proton levels of these various particles in aqueous solution, as has been done in Fig. 36. The two exceptions in Table 9 are the values derived from the KB of glycine and alanine. In these cases, as shown in (125), a proton is transferred to a vacant level from the ordinary occupied proton level in a water molecule the value of J gives the amount by which the vacant level lies above this occupied proton level of H20. 

To apply the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation to an amino acid, let s find out what species are present in a 1.00 M solution of alanine at pH = 9.00. According to Table 26.1, protonated alanine [ NCHfCH CC H] has p/Cal =2.34, and neutral zwitteTionlc alanine [+ll3NCH(CH3)C02-] has pK52 = 9.69 ... 

Each leg of the titration curve is calculated separately. The first leg, from pH 1 to 6, corresponds to the dissociation of protonated alanine, H2A+. The second leg, from pH 6 to 11, corresponds to the dissociation of zwitterionic alanine, HA. It s as if we started with H2A+ at low pH and then titrated with NaOH. When 0.5 equivalent of NaOH is added, the deprotonation of H2A+ is 50% done when 1.0 equivalent of NaOH is added, the deprotonation of H2A+ is complete and HA predominates when 1.5 equivalent of NaOH is added, the deprotonation of H A is 50% done and when 2.0 equivalents of NaOH is added, the deprotonation of HA is complete. 

Figure 26.1 A titration curve for alanine, plotted using the Henderson-Hasselbalch equation. Each of the two legs is plotted separately. At pH < 1, alanine is entirely protonated at pH = 2.34, alanine is a 50 50 mix of protonated and neutral forms at pH 6.01, alanine is entirely neutral at pH = 9.69, alanine is a 50 50 mix of neutral and deprotonated forms at pH > 11.5, alanine is entirely deprotonated.

Photodriven reactions of Fischer carbenes with alcohols produces esters, the expected product from nucleophilic addition to ketenes. Hydroxycarbene complexes, generated in situ by protonation of the corresponding ate complex, produced a-hydroxyesters in modest yield (Table 15) [103]. Ketals,presumably formed by thermal decomposition of the carbenes, were major by-products. The discovery that amides were readily converted to aminocarbene complexes [104] resulted in an efficient approach to a-amino acids by photodriven reaction of these aminocarbenes with alcohols (Table 16) [105,106]. a-Alkylation of the (methyl)(dibenzylamino)carbene complex followed by photolysis produced a range of racemic alanine derivatives (Eq. 26). With chiral oxazolidine carbene complexes optically active amino acid derivatives were available (Eq. 27). Since both enantiomers of the optically active chromium aminocarbene are equally available, both the natural S and unnatural R amino acid derivatives are equally... 

Figure 43 nOe buildup with respect to time, after irradiation of bound alanine methyl protons in ristocetin A-tripeptide complex for four different protons. (Reprinted from D. H. Williams et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 105, 1332, copyright (1983), with permission from The American Chemical Society, 1155 16th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036, U.S.A.)... 

Since the inception of our work Jere, Miller and Jackson have published kinetic and stereochemical data on the hydrogenation of alanine (19). Important in their analysis is the observation that amino acids must be in their protonated form to undergo facile hydrogenation since reduction of carboxylate anions is significantly more endothermic than protonated acids (19). Control of pH is important for two reasons at neutral pH amino acids exist as zwitterions and the resultant hydrogenation products are basic. For these reasons a full equivalent of phosphoric acid (or similar acid) is required to obtain high yields. 

The behaviour of the mutant enzymes where, for example, histidine-152 has been changed to alanine is compared with that of wild type enzymes.60 The 31P NMR chemical shift values and signal width for H152A mutant enzyme have shown the presence of two conformers open and closed forms of the enzyme that interconvert slowly on the NMR time scale. The tightness of the binding of the cofactor to the protein surface and its protonation state have been also discussed for intermediate Schiff bases in different steps of the catalytic cycle (Table 1). 

Protonated imines are effective dienophiles. Thus in the reaction of methyl glyoxylate with the hydrochloride 127 of alanine methyl ester in the presence of cyclopentadiene, a mixture of hydrochlorides of the exo- and ewrfo-adducts 128-131 was formed (equation 69). The diastereomeric ratio of the exo-compounds was 83 1761. 

Recent studies carried out by our group show [5] that low-energy electrons can directly attach to and subsequently fragment S-S a bonds in disulfide-linked dimers of Ac-Cys-Ala -Lys (with n — 10, 15, and 20) that are protonated at then-two Lys sites. An example of such a species is shown in Fig. 1 where the alanine... 

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