Carboxylates aspartate and

The information that there is a high probability that the metal lies in the carboxyl plane, but with possible deviations for specific metals, provides a mechanism for searching for metal-binding positions in proteins. This method was used in a study of the enzyme xylose isomerase from Streptomyces rubiginosus (Carrell et al., 1989). Two metal sites were located. One metal-binding site involves three carboxylates (aspartate and glutamate), histidine, and water, and the other involves four carboxylate... 

In contrast to the lability of certain dN adducts formed by the BHT metabolite above, amino acid and protein adducts formed by this metabolite were relatively stable.28,29 The thiol of cysteine reacted most rapidly in accord with its nucleophilic strength and was followed in reactivity by the a-amine common to all amino acids. This type of amine even reacted preferentially over the e-amine of lysine.28 In proteins, however, the e-amine of lysine and thiol of cysteine dominate reaction since the vast majority of a-amino groups are involved in peptide bonds. Other nucleophilic side chains such as the carboxylate of aspartate and glutamate and the imidazole of histidine may react as well, but their adducts are likely to be too labile to detect as suggested by the relative stability of QMs and the leaving group ability of the carboxylate and imidazole groups (see Section 9.2.3). 

The active-site model (and the ONIOM model system) includes Fe, one aspartate and two histidine ligands, a water ligand and selected parts of the substrate (see Figure 2-6). The 2-histidine-1-carboxylate ligand theme is shared by several other non-heme iron enzymes [59], For the protein system, we used two different... 

Most proteins contain an abundance of carboxylic acid groups from C-terminal functionalities and aspartic and glutamic acid side chains. These groups are readily modified with bis-hydrazide compounds to yield useful hydrazide-activated derivatives. Both carbohydrazide and adipic acid dihydrazide have been employed in forming these modifications using the carbodi-imide reaction (Wilchek and Bayer, 1987). 

A series of 1-aminoalkanediphosphonic acids has been reported by the treatment of the N-phenylthiourea derivatives of a>-diethoxyphos-phinoylaldehydes with triphenyl phosphite.343 This constitutes an approach toward the analogues of aspartic and glutamic acid in which both carboxylate sites have been replaced by phosphonic acid functions. A similar approach has also been reported to be of use for the preparation of (diphenyl ester) phosphonate analogues of ornithine, lysine, and homolysine.344345... 

In addition to the 0-methylation of aspartate and glutamate residues, the C-terminal carboxyl group of GTPases are methylated. In the G-protein family C-terminal cysteines are prenylated at the sequence CZZX, where Z is a hydrophobic amino acid and X represents any residue. Once the ZZX sequence is cleaved by a special protease, the isoprenylcysteine carboxymethyltransferase (Icmt) methylates the C-terminal carboxyl group and effectively creates a more hydrophobic enzyme. ... 

Heating of foods rich in proteins may lead to formation of crosslinking isopeptide bonds between the S-NH2 group of lysine and the p- and y-carboxyl groups of aspartic and glutamic acid residues or their amides. 

Acyl residues are usually activated by transfer to coenzyme A (2). In coenzyme A (see p. 12), pantetheine is linked to 3 -phos-pho-ADP by a phosphoric acid anhydride bond. Pantetheine consists of three components connected by amide bonds—pantoic acid, alanine, and cysteamine. The latter two components are biogenic amines formed by the decarboxylation of aspartate and cysteine, respectively. The compound formed from pantoic acid and p-alanine (pantothenic acid) has vitamin-like characteristics for humans (see p. 368). Reactions between the thiol group of the cysteamine residue and carboxylic acids give rise to thioesters, such as acetyl CoA. This reaction is strongly endergonic, and it is therefore coupled to exergonic processes. Thioesters represent the activated form of carboxylic adds, because acyl residues of this type have a high chemical potential and are easily transferred to other molecules. This property is often exploited in metabolism. 

The major metal-binding amino acid side chains in proteins (Gurd and Wilcox, 1956 see Voet and Voet, 1990) (Table II) are carboxyl (aspartic acid and glutamic acid), imidazole (histidine), indole (tryptophan), thiol (cysteine), thioether (methionine), hydroxyl (serine, threonine, and tyrosine), and possibly amide groups (asparagine and glutamine, although... 

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