Amino acid methionine

Sulfur. Sulfur is present in every cell in the body, primarily in proteins containing the amino acids methionine, cystine, and cysteine. Inorganic sulfates and sulfides occur in small amounts relative to total body sulfur, but the compounds that contain them are important to metaboHsm (45,46). Sulfur intake is thought to be adequate if protein intake is adequate and sulfur deficiency has not been reported. Common food sources rich in sulfur are Hsted in Table 6. 

Calculated as sulfur-containing amino acids, methionine plus cystine. Serving corresponds to 236 mL (1 cup) unless otherwise noted. Serving corresponds to 113 g (4 oz). 

Hydroxy-4-methylthiobutyric acid [583-91 -5] the hydroxy analogue of the amino acid methionine, is manufactured by acid hydrolysis of 3-methylthiopropionaldehyde cyanohydrin [17773-41-0] which is produced by the reaction of methyl mercaptan with acrolein (qv). 

Problem 9.11 Assign R or 5 configuration to the chirality center in the following molecular model of the amino acid methionine (blue = N, yellow = S) ... 

The amino acid methionine is formed by a melhylation reaction of homo cysteine with iV-methyltetrahydrofolate. The stereochemistry of the reactior has been probed by carrying out the transformation using a donor with a "chiral methyl group" that contains protium (H), deuterium (D), and tritium (T isotopes of hydrogen. Does the methylation reaction occur with inversion oi retention of configuration ... 

The most common example of this process in living organisms is the reaction of the amino acid methionine with adenosine triphosphate (ATP Section 5.8) to give S-adenosylmethionine. The reaction is somewhat unusual in that the biological leaving group in this SN2 process is the triphosphate ion rather than the more frequently seen rliphosphate ion (Section 11.6). 

The amino acid methionine is biosynthesized by a multistep roule that includes reaction of an inline of pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) to give an unsaturated imine. which then reacts with cysteine. What kinds of reactions are occurring in the two steps ... 

Not only the smallest optically active amino acid (alanine), but also leucine, several (substituted) aromatic amino acids, heterosubstituted amino acids (methionine, homomethionine and thienylglydne) and even an iminoacid, proline, are obtainable in both the L- and D-form. 

Of the twenty amino acids that are normally found in proteins, only two contain sulfur, cysteine and methionine. Cysteine has long been recognized as being easily oxidized and this oxidation is associated with the loss of biological activity of many proteins. In recent years, it has been shown that methionine also shares these characteristics. Methionine was first isolated by Mueller19 and was one of the last amino acids discovered. Its structure was later proven to be y-methylthio-a-aminobutyric acid by Barger and Coyne20 who named the amino acid methionine as a contraction for its chemical name. 

Propose a synthesis for the naturally-occurring amino acid methionine (44) using the logic ol this chapter,... 

Exposure of the amino acid methionine to H2O2 or an OH radical flux generates methionine sulphoxide as a... 

The grain or pulse forms of legumes have a high total protein content (20-26%) and can therefore be used as a natural supplement to cereals. Pulses are normally deficient in the essential amino acids methionine and cystine but contain enough lysine, whereas cereals are deficient in lysine but contain enough methionine and cystine. 

Amino Acid Content. Amino acid content of field pea products is related to protein level, method of processing, and fraction (starch or protein). The protein fraction contains fewer acidic (glu, asp) amino acids than the starch fraction and more basic (lys, his, arg) amino acids than the starch fraction. Also, there are more aromatic (tyr, phe) amino acids, leu, iso, ser, val, and pro in the protein fraction than in the starch fraction (5). An amino acid profile of pea protein concentrate shows relatively high lysine content (7.77 g aa/16 g N) but low sulfur amino acids (methionine and cystine) (1.08-2.4 g aa/16 g N). Therefore, it is recommended that air classification or ultrafiltration be used because acid precipitation results in a whey fraction which contains high levels of sulfur amino acids (12,23). Also, drum drying sodium proteinates decreases lysine content due to the Maillard reaction (33). 

The substitution of the seed flours for cowpeas or wheat flour increased the percentage protein (Table IV) in all food products and increased the chemical scores of the limiting amino acids, methionine and cystine, for all foods. 

It is the role of jV5-methyl THF which is key to understanding the involvement of cobalamin in megaloblastic anaemia. The metabolic requirement for N-methyl THF is to maintain a supply of the amino acid methionine, the precursor of S-adenosyl methionine (SAM), which is required for a number of methylation reactions. The transfer of the methyl group from jV5-methyl THF to homocysteine is cobalamin-dependent, so in B12 deficiency states, the production of SAM is reduced. Furthermore, the reaction which brings about the formation of Ns-methyl THF from N5,N10-methylene THF is irreversible and controlled by feedback inhibition by SAM. Thus, if B12 is unavailable, SAM concentration falls and Ah -methyl THF accumulates and THF cannot be re-formed. The accumulation of AT-methyl THF is sometimes referred to as the methyl trap because a functional deficiency of folate is created. 

Fig. 7.5. Comparison of (a) 70 eV El spectrum and (b) methane reagent gas Cl spectrum of the amino acid methionine. Fragmentation is strongly reduced in the d mass spectrum.

The nonprotein amino acid, 1-aminocyclopropane-l-carboxylic acid, is an intermediate of ethylene biosynthesis in plants. This amino acid is synthesized from the L-a-amino acid methionine through the intermediate 5 -adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) (Scheme 8). ... 

Figure 8.3 A summary of pathways involved in the synthesis of non-essential amino acids. Glutamate is produced from ammonia and oxoglutarate. Glutamate is the source of nitrogen for synthesis of most of the amino acids. Cysteine and tyrosine are different because they require the essential amino acids (methionine and phenylyalanine) for their synthesis. These two amino acids are, therefore, conditionally essential, i.e. when there is not sufficient methionine or phenylyalanine for their synthesis, they are essential (Details are in Appendix 8.2).

A simple observation led to the identification of homocysteine as a risk factor for coronary heart disease. Homocysteine is an intermediate in metabolism of the amino acid methionine. Indeed, the first reaction in the catabolism of methionine involves the formation of homocysteine but it can be converted back to methionine in a reaction that is catalysed by methionine synthase (see Figure 22.7). 

The conjugate addition of a thiol, methanethiol, to the a,(5-unsaturated aldehyde acrolein may be used in the synthesis of the amino acid methionine. Under basic conditions, the nucleophile will be the thiolate anion, and 1,4-addition leads to the thia-aldehyde. Methionine may then be obtained via... 

Protons are mainly derived from two sources—free acids in the diet and sulfur-containing amino acids. Acids taken up with food— e.g., citric acid, ascorbic acid, and phosphoric acid—already release protons in the alkaline pH of the intestinal tract. More important for proton balance, however, are the amino acids methionine and cysteine, which arise from protein degradation in the cells. Their S atoms are oxidized in the liver to form sulfuric acid, which supplies protons by dissociation into sulfate. 

The cytoplasmic organelles that provide the platform for this process are the ribosomes. This complex recognizes and binds to a specific region at the 5 end of the mRNA. The signal for initiating a polypeptide chain is a special initiation codon in the mRNA sequence that marks the start of the reading frame. Usually the initiation codon is the triplet AUG, which represents the amino acid methionine, and thus most proteins have this amino acid as the first one in the polypeptide. 

Homocysteine (Hey) metabolism is closely linked to that of the essential amino acid methionine and thus plays a central role in several vital biological processes. Methionine itself is needed for protein synthesis and donates methyl groups for the synthesis of a broad range of vital methylated compounds. It is also a main source of sulphur and acts as the precursor for several other sulphur-containing amino acids such as cystathionine, cysteine and taurine. In addition, it donates the carbon skeleton for polyamine synthesis [1,2]. Hey is also important in the metabolism of folate and in the breakdown of choline. Hey levels are determined by its synthesis from methionine, which involves several enzymes, its remethylation to methionine and its breakdown by trans-sulphuration. 

Ethionine is a hepatotoxic analogue of the amino acid methionine (Fig. 7.64). Ethionine is an antimetabolite, which has similar chemical and physical properties to the naturally occurring... 

Plants and bacteria produce the reduced sulfur required for the synthesis of cysteine (and methionine, described later) from environmental sulfates the pathway is shown on the right side of Figure 22-13. Sulfate is activated in two steps to produce 3-phosphoadeno-sine 5 -phosphosulfate (PAPS), which undergoes an eight-electron reduction to sulfide. The sulfide is then used in formation of cysteine from serine in a two-step pathway. Mammals synthesize cysteine from two amino acids methionine furnishes the sulfur atom and serine furnishes the carbon skeleton. Methionine is first converted to 5-adenosylmethionine (see Fig. 18-18), which can lose its methyl group to any of a number of acceptors to form A-adenosylhomocysteine (adoHcy). This demethylated product is hydrolyzed to free homocys-... 

Methional, formed by the degradation of the amino acid methionine, has been reported (Patton 1954 Velander and Patton 1955) to be the principal contributor to the activated flavor. Samuelsson (1962) reported, in studies of dio- and tripeptides containing methionine, that irradiation did not result in any hydrolysis of the peptides, and the... 

Whey proteins are slightly superior to casein because of the limiting quantity of the total sulfur-containing amino acids (methionine plus cystine) in casein. However, because whey proteins have a relative surplus of these amino acids, casein and whey proteins, as found in milk,... 

Necessary for the growth of infants and children. No estimated requirements for adults. dValue for total S-containing amino acids (methionine + cystine). 

Regions rich in proline, glutamate, serine, and threonine (PEST regions) may be good substrates for Ca2+-activated cytosolic proteases.137 The ubiquitin system appears to act most slowly on a protein when the normal initiation amino acid methionine is present at the N terminus. 

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