Amino acid phenylalanine

The mode of action is by inhibiting 5-enolpymvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase. Roundup shuts down the production of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophane (30). Whereas all these amino acids are essential to the survival of the plant, tryptophane is especially important because it is the progenitor for indole-3-acetic acid, or auxin, which plays an important role in growth and development, and controls cell extension and organogenesis. 

Herbicides also inhibit 5- (9/-pymvylshikiniate synthase, a susceptible en2yme in the pathway to the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan, and to the phenylpropanes. Acetolactate synthase, or acetohydroxy acid synthase, a key en2yme in the synthesis of the branched-chain amino acids isoleucine and valine, is also sensitive to some herbicides. Glyphosate (26), the sulfonylureas (136), and the imida2oles (137) all inhibit specific en2ymes in amino acid synthesis pathways. 

There are many excellent examples of experiments using isotopic labeling in both organic chemistry and biochemistry. An interesting example is the case of lydroxylation of the amino acid phenylalanine which is carried out by the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase. 

The nonpolar amino acids (Figure 4.3a) include all those with alkyl chain R groups (alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine), as well as proline (with its unusual cyclic structure), methionine (one of the two sulfur-containing amino acids), and two aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine and tryptophan. Tryptophan is sometimes considered a borderline member of this group because it can interact favorably with water via the N-H moiety of the indole ring. Proline, strictly speaking, is not an amino acid but rather an a-imino acid. 

Chymotrypsin shows a strong preference for hydrolyzing peptide bonds formed by the carboxyl groups of the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. Flowever, over time chymotrypsin also hydrolyzes amide bonds involving amino acids other than Phe, Tyr, or Trp. Peptide bonds having leucine-donated carboxyls become particularly susceptible. Thus, the specificity... 

Partial hydrolysis of a peptide can be carried out either chemically with aqueous acid or enzymatically. Acidic hydrolysis is unselective and leads to a more or less random mixture of small fragments, but enzymatic hydrolysis is quite specific. The enzyme trypsin, for instance, catalyzes hydrolysis of peptides only at the carboxyl side of the basic amino acids arginine and lysine chymotrypsin cleaves only at the carboxyl side of the aryl-substituted amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan. 

The specific ribonucleotide sequence in mRNA forms a message that determines the order in which amino acid residues are to be joined. Each "word," or codon, along the mRNA chain consists of a sequence of three ribonucleotides that is specific for a given amino add. For example, the series UUC on mRNA is a codon directing incorporation of the amino acid phenylalanine into the growing protein. Of the 43 = 64 possible triplets of the four bases in RNA, 61 code for specific amino acids and 3 code for chain termination, fable 28.1 shows the meaning of each codon. 

Biological examples of pericyclic reactions are relatively rare, although one much-studied example occurs during biosynthesis in bacteria of the essential amino acid phenylalanine. Phenylalanine arises from the precursor chorismate,... 

The mature domain contains a very high percentage of the aromatic amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine (>10% on a molar basis). 

There is a very wide range of aromatic compounds present in living systems, e.g. the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine, and catecholamines such as norepinephrine. Although these speciesi are very useful for in vitro investigations of OH radical generation, their applicability as suitable aromatic detector molecules for OH radical in vivo largely depends on their concentration (i.e. their ability to compete with alternative... 

One compound that has been quite widely used as an aromatic detector molecule in vitro is the naturally occurring amino acid, phenylalanine (Ishimitsu etal., 1984). However, human blood and tissue levels of this amino acid are normally too low for it to scavenge enough of... 

Most cyanogenic glycosides are biogenetically derived from the amino acids phenylalanine, tyrosine, valine, isoleucine, or leucine but the non-protein amino acid cyclopentenylglycine and probably, nicotinic acid also serve as precursors (Figure 5.1) [9]. 

The cells of all contemporary living organisms are surrounded by cell membranes, which normally consist of a phospholipid bilayer, consisting of two layers of lipid molecules, into which various amounts of proteins are incorporated. The basis for the formation of mono- or bilayers is the physicochemical character of the molecules involved these are amphipathic (bifunctional) molecules, i.e., molecules which have both a polar and also a non-polar group of atoms. Examples are the amino acid phenylalanine (a) or the phospholipid phosphatidylcholine (b), which is important in membrane formation. In each case, the polar group leads to hydrophilic, and the non-polar group to hydrophobic character. 

Hidalgo, I. J., Borchardt, R. T., Transport of large neutral amino acid (phenylalanine, in a human intestinal cell line Caco-2) Biochim. Biophys. 

Replacement of the hydroxyl group on the phenyl ring with a carboxyl group forms a molecule of benzoic acid. Addition of a hydroxyl at the 2-position on a benzoic acid molecule forms 2-hydroxybenzoic acid or salicylic acid. The slightly more complex phenylpropanoid skeleton contains a linear three-carbon chain (the propanoic group) added to the benzene ring (the phenyl group). Addition of ammonia to carbon 2 of this three-carbon side chain yields the amino acid phenylalanine (Fig. 3.3). Phenylalanine... 

Precursors of phenylpropanoids are synthesized from two basic pathways the shikimic acid pathway and the malonic pathway (see Fig. 3.1). The shikimic acid pathway produces most plant phenolics, whereas the malonic pathway, which is an important source of phenolics in fungi and bacteria, is less significant in higher plants. The shikimate pathway converts simple carbohydrate precursors into the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine. The synthesis of an intermediate in this pathway, shikimic acid, is blocked by the broad-spectrum herbicide glyphosate (i.e., Roundup). Because animals do not possess this synthetic pathway, they have no way to synthesize the three aromatic amino acids (i.e., phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan), which are therefore essential nutrients in animal diets. 

Many secondary phenolic compounds are derived from the amino acids phenylalanine and tyrosine and therefore contain an aromatic ring and a three-carbon side chain (see Fig. 3.3). Phenylalanine is the primary substrate for phenylpropanoid synthesis in most higher vascular plants, with tyrosine being used to a lesser extent in some plants. Because of their common structure, compounds derived from these amino acids are collectively called phenylpropanoids. 

Ring B and the central three-carbon bridge forming the C ring (see Fig. 5.1) originate from the amino acid phenylalanine, itself a product of the shikimate pathway, a plastid-based process which generates aromatic amino acids from simple carbohydrate building blocks. Phenylalanine, and to a lesser extent tyrosine, are then fed into flavonoid biosynthesis via phenylpropanoid (C6-C3) metabolism (see Fig. 5.1). 

Some 70 per cent of all cystic fibrosis patients exhibit a specific three-base-pair deletion in the gene, which results in the loss of a single amino acid (phenylalanine 508) from its final polypeptide product. Other cystic fibrosis patients display various other mutations in the same gene. 

By use of a crude preparation obtained after the cultivation of Aspergillus niger,104 pectinesterase was purified by repeated chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, using gradient elution. The homogeneity of the product was checked by free electrophoresis, sedimentation analysis, and determination of the N-terminal amino acid (phenylalanine). 

Barker, E. L. and Blakely, R. D. (1996) Identification of a single amino acid, phenylalanine 586, that is responsible for high affinity interactions of tricyclic antidepressants with the human serotonin transporter. Mol. Pharmacol. 50, 957-965. 

A method for determination of the aromatic amino acid phenylalanine (45), tyrosine (46) and tryptophan (47) content of peptides at low microgram levels is based on size-exclusion HPLC combined with UVD using a diode array, and data processing of the... 

Racemic mixtures of underivatized amino acids N-alkyl- and N-aryl-substitued derivates of amino acids (phenylalanine and proline) on graphitic carbon 0.001 M Cu(acetate)2 aqueous solution 229, 230... 

An adenylation domain from the gramicidin S synthetase provided the first atomic resolution structural information for an NRPS domain (Figure 11 (a)). The excised protein is part of the first module of the synthetase. The domain is responsible for both activating the amino acid phenylalanine and loading the building block onto the adjacent PCP domain. The structure demonstrated that A domains share a common... 

A problem with tyrosine and cysteine is that they can be synthesised from other amino acids, phenylalanine and methionine, respectively. Since both phenylalanine and methionine are indispensable amino acids, if they are not present in the diet at or below minimal requirement, then there is not sufficient to synthesise tyrosine or cysteine and, therefore, these amino acids become indispensable, i.e. conditionally essential. 

The precursors of true alkaloids and protoalkaloids are aminoacids (both their precursors and postcursors), while transamination reactions precede pseudoalkaloids (Tables 1 and 10). It is not difficult to see that from all aminoacids only a small part is known as alkaloid precursors (Table 19). Both true and proto alkaloids are synthesized mainly from the aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine (isoquinoline alkaloids) and tryptophan (indole alkaloids). Lysine is the... 

Phenylpropanamide (130), from the aposematic beetle (genus Metrior-rhynchus) (Table VIII), has been purified by gas chromatography from the methanol extract. Its structure is presumed from mass spectral data and was confirmed by comparison with a synthetic sample (97). The co-occurrence of amide 130 and l-methyl-2-quinolone (57) in this beetle suggests a common pathway of biosynthesis and that they may be derived from the amino acid phenylalanine. 

The aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, have ring structures and are nonpolar with the exception of the hydroxyl group of tyrosine. 

Figure 9-3. Fates of the carbon skeletons upon metabolism of the amino acids. Points of entry at various steps of the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, glycolysis and gluconeogenesis are shown for the carbons skeletons of the amino acids. Note the multiple fates of the glucogenic amino acids glycine (Gly), serine (Ser), and threonine (Thr) as well as the combined glucogenic and ketogenic amino acids phenylalanine (Phe), tryptophan (Trp), and tyrosine (Tyr). Ala, alanine Cys, cysteine lie, isoleucine Leu, leucine Lys, lysine Asn, asparagine Asp, aspartate Arg, arginine His, histidine Glu, glutamate Gin, glutamine Pro, proline Val, valine Met, methionine.

If a compound dissociates in a solvent and one part of the pair has another absorption than the other (e.g., p-nitrophenol/p-nitrophenolate), the absorption coefficient changes with dilution. This should be taken into consideration when different dilutions of a compound are compared. The concentration of an aqueous protein solution can be estimated by reading the UV absorption. The aromatic amino acids (phenylalanine, tryptophan, tyrosine)... 

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