Citrate prochiral centers

Elucidating the stereochemistry of reaction at prochirality centers is a powerful method for studying detailed mechanisms in biochemical reactions. As just one example, the conversion of citrate to (ds)-aconitate in the citric acid cycle has been shown to occur with loss of a pro-R hydrogen, implying that the reaction takes place by an anti elimination mechanism. That is, the OH and H groups leave from opposite sides of the molecule. 

Note that the hydroxyl-bearing carbon of citrate is a prochirality center and contains two identical "arms." Because the initial aldol reaction of acetyl CoA to oxaloacetate occurs specifically from the Si face of the ketone carbonyl group, the pro-S arm of citrate is derived from acetyl CoA and the pro-R arm is derived from oxaloacetate. 

The citrate ion, a very important prochiral metabolic intermediate, has three prochiral centers at C-2, C-3, and C-4, respectively. That at C-3 distinguishes the pro-R and pro-S arms and determines the stereochemical numbering. Citrate containing 14C in the sn-1 position is called s -citrate[l-14C] and is the form of labeled citrate that is synthesized in living cells from oxaloacetate and [l-14C]acetyl coenzyme A (see Fig. 10-6). The first step in the further metabolism of citrate is the elimination of the -OH group from C-3 together with the Hr proton from C-4 through the action of the enzyme aconitate hydratase (aconitase). In this case the proton at C-4 (in the pro-R arm) is selected rather than that at C-2. 

It was not until 1948 that Ogston popularized the concept that by binding with substrates at three points, enzymes were capable of asymmetric attack upon symmetric substrates.d In other words, an enzyme could synthesize citrate with the carbon atoms from acetyl-CoA occupying one of the two -CH2COOH groups surrounding the prochiral center. Later, the complete stereochemistry of the... 

You might note that C2 of glycerol is a prochiral center with two identical arms, a situation similar to that of citrate in the citric acid cycle (Section 22.4). As is typical for enzyme-catalyzed reactions, the phosphorylation of glycerol is selective. Only the pro-R arm undergoes reaction, although this can t be predicted in advance. 

A stereochemical property of compounds arising from the ability of an enzyme s active site to distinguish between two chemically identical substituents covalently bound to a tetrahedral center (usually carbon and, in some cases, phosphorus). Prochirality is also termed prostereoisomerism. The classical example is citrate with its two carboxymethyl group substituents. Likewise, the Cl carbon atom of ethanol has two prochiral hydrogens. See Chirality Chirality Probes... 

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