Amino acids, equilibrium with

Fig. 5.5 The oligopeptide synthesis at cationic micelles using the condensation agent CDI leads to the intermediate (I), which is in equilibrium with an IV-carboxyanhydride (II). A free primary or secondary amino acid reacts with (II) and forms an amide linkage as well as a carbamide terminus. ...

There is one major disadvantage to most of the transamination technology as presented above because the transamination reaction involves an amino acid reacting with a 2-keto acid to generate products which consist of a 2-keto acid and an amino acid, the equilibrium constant is often close to unity. As a result, the net conversion of substrates to products is thermodynamically limited. The key to the development of an efficient transamination technology lies in overcoming the problem of incomplete conversion of the 2-keto acid precursor to the desired amino acid product. 

Scheme I. The preferred pathway is represented by the closed loop (heavier arrows), which bypasses free enzyme. Following the release of NADP+, the release of H4F from the E-H4F complex is too slow to account for turnover, but it is enhanced 10-fold by the binding of NADPH at the neighboring site. Studies on dihydrofolate reductase have provided a complete analysis of the effects of point mutations on the rate and equilibrium constants for each step in the reaction sequence. The active site structure of dihydrofolate reductase is shown schematically in Fig. 5, illustrating some of the amino acids interacting with the substrates that have been mutated.

Fig. 8.27. Maillard reaction involved in the non-enzymic oxidative browning of plant tissues, (a) Formation of an imine by an amino acid reacting with an aldose (Ri = H) or ketose (Ri H). (b) Enolization of the imine to enaminol, then to an Amadori (Ri = H) or Heyns (Ri H) intermediate, (c) Breaking of the preceding intermediates, with the appearance of a reductone in redox equilibrium with an a-dicarbonylated compound, responsible for the non-enzymic oxidation phenomenon...

As mentioned before, one of the main drawbacks in the application of threonine aldolases is their lack of erithro/threo selectivity (kinetic limitation) and their equilibrium position (thermodynamic limitation). Recently, a tandem use of LD-threonine aldolases with low selectivity and L-amino acid decarboxylases with high selectivity has demonstrated to overcome the kinetic and thermodynamic limitations in the synthesis of phenyl serine (Steinreiber et al. 2007). Starting with benzalde-hyde and glycine, i -phenyl ethanol was obtained in 58% isolated yield and R enantiomeric excess higher than 99% by the action of L-threonine aldolase (L-TA) from Pseudomonas putida, D-threonine aldolase (D-TA) from Alcaligenes xylosoxidans and L-tyrosine decarboxylase (L-TyrDC) from Enterococcus faecalis following the scheme depicted in Fig. 6.5.17. 

Heterocyclic enamines A -pyrroline and A -piperideine are the precursors of compounds containing the pyrrolidine or piperidine rings in the molecule. Such compounds and their N-methylated analogs are believed to originate from arginine and lysine (291) by metabolic conversion. Under cellular conditions the proper reaction with an active methylene compound proceeds via an aldehyde ammonia, which is in equilibrium with other possible tautomeric forms. It is necessary to admit the involvement of the corresponding a-ketoacid (12,292) instead of an enamine. The a-ketoacid constitutes an intermediate state in the degradation of an amino acid to an aldehyde. a-Ketoacids or suitably substituted aromatic compounds may function as components in active methylene reactions (Scheme 17). 

The enantioselective inverse electron-demand 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition reactions of nitrones with alkenes described so far were catalyzed by metal complexes that favor a monodentate coordination of the nitrone, such as boron and aluminum complexes. However, the glyoxylate-derived nitrone 36 favors a bidentate coordination to the catalyst. This nitrone is a very interesting substrate, since the products that are obtained from the reaction with alkenes are masked a-amino acids. One of the characteristics of nitrones such as 36, having an ester moiety in the a position, is the swift E/Z equilibrium at room temperature (Scheme 6.28). In the crystalline form nitrone 36 exists as the pure Z isomer, however, in solution nitrone 36 have been shown to exists as a mixture of the E and Z isomers. This equilibrium could however be shifted to the Z isomer in the presence of a Lewis acid [74]. 

Different Types of Proton Transfers. Molecular Ions. The Electrostatic Energy. The ZwiUertons of Amino Acids. Aviopro-tolysis of the Solvent. The Dissociation Constant of a Weak Acid. Variation of the Equilibrium Constant with Temperature. Proton Transfers of Class I. Proton Transfers of Classes II, III, and IV. The Temperature at Which In Kx Passes through Its Maximum. Comparison between Theory and Experiment. A Chart of Occupied and Vacant Proton Levels. 

In aqueous solutions at pH 7, there is little evidence of complex formation between [MesSnflV)] and Gly. Potentiometric determination of the formation constants for L-Cys, DL-Ala, and L-His with the same cation indicates that L-Cys binds more strongly than other two amino acids (pKi ca. 10,6, or 5, respectively). Equilibrium and spectroscopic studies on L-Cys and its derivatives (S-methyl-cystein (S-Me-Cys), N-Ac-Cys) and the [Et2Sn(IV)] system showed that these ligands coordinate the metal ion via carboxylic O and the thiolic 5 donor atoms in acidic media. In the case of S-Me-Cys, the formation of a protonated complex MLH was also detected, due to the stabilizing effect of additional thioether coordination. ... 

C17-0120. In aqueous solution, amino acids exist as zwitterions (German for double ions ), compounds in which internal proton transfer gives a molecule with two charged functional groups. Use Lewis structures to illustrate the proton transfer equilibrium between the uncharged form of glycine (NH2 CH2 CO2 H) and its zwitterion form. 

Depicted in Fig. 2, microemulsion-based liquid liquid extraction (LLE) of biomolecules consists of the contacting of a biomolecule-containing aqueous solution with a surfactant-containing lipophilic phase. Upon contact, some of the water and biomolecules will transfer to the organic phase, depending on the phase equilibrium position, resulting in a biphasic Winsor II system (w/o-ME phase in equilibrium with an excess aqueous phase). Besides serving as a means to solubilize biomolecules in w/o-MEs, LLE has been frequently used to isolate and separate amino acids, peptides and proteins [4, and references therein]. In addition, LLE has recently been employed to isolate vitamins, antibiotics, and nucleotides [6,19,40,77-79]. Industrially relevant applications of LLE are listed in Table 2 [14,15,20,80-90]. 

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