Deamination of L-phenylalanine

The key reaction that links primary and secondary metabolism is provided by the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) which catalyzes the deamination of l-phenylalanine to form iran.v-cinnamic acid with the release of NH3 (see Fig. 3.3). Tyrosine is similarly deaminated by tyrosine ammonia lyase (TAL) to produce 4-hydroxycinnamic acid and NH3. The released NH3 is probably fixed by the glutamine synthetase reaction. These deaminations initiate the main phenylpropanoid pathway. 

The general phenylpropanoid pathway begins with the deamination of L-phenylalanine to cinnamic acid catalyzed by phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL), Fig. (1), the branch-point enzyme between primary (shikimate pathway) and secondary (phenylpropanoid) metabolism [5-7]. Due to the position of PAL at the entry point of phenylpropanoid metabolism, this enzyme has the potential to play a regulatory role in phenolic-compound production. The importance of this is illustrated by the high degree of regulation both during development as well as in response to environmental stimuli. 

L-Phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL EC 4.3.1.5), an enzyme found in a variety of plants, catalyzes both the deamination of L-phenylalanine to (L )-3-phenyl-2-butenoic acid and the reverse reaction33-36. 

Various commercial routes for the production of L-phenyalanine have been developed because of the utilization of this amino acid in the dipeptide sweetener Aspartame. One route that has been actively pursued is the synthesis of L-phenylalanine from trans-cinnamic acid using the enzyme phenylalanine ammonia lyase (105,106). This enzyme catalyzes the reversible, nonoxidative deamination of L-phenylalanine and can be isolated from various plant and microbial sources (107,108). 

The enzyme phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) catalyses non-oxi-dative deamination of L-phenylalanine to form /ra 5-cinnamic acid... 

PAL catalyzes the deamination of L-phenylalanine and produces f-cinnamic acid in the first step in phenolic metabolism, so PAL is referred to as the key enzyme or rate-limiting enzyme in phenolic biosynthesis. It is difficult to compare PAL activity in different circumstances, because of the large effects of the physiological stage on the enzyme and because of its sensitivity to external factors such as light, temperature and stress (Macheix et al. 1990). 

A new development is the industrial production of L-phenylalanine by converting phenylpyruvic add with pyridoxalphosphate-dependent phenylalanine transaminase (see Figure A8.16). The biotransformation step is complicated by an unfavourable equilibrium and the need for an amino-donor (aspartic add). For a complete conversion of phenylpyruvic add, oxaloacetic add (deamination product of aspartic add) is decarboxylated enzymatically or chemically to pyruvic add. The use of immobilised . coli (covalent attachment and entrapment of whole cells with polyazetidine) is preferred in this process (Figure A8.17). 

The aromatic amino acid L-phenylalanine (primary metabolite) is directed into the phe-nylpropanoid pathway leading to hydroxy-cinnamic acids, lignin and flavonoids by the activity of L-phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL), which brings about its nonoxidative deamination yielding ammonia and tvans-cinnamic acid (Fig. 1). PAL is one of the most studied plant enzymes, and its crystal structure has recently been solved [2]. PAL is related to the histidine and tyrosine ammonia-lyases of amino acid catabolism. A class of bifunctional PALs found in monocotyle-donous plants and yeast can also deaminate tyrosine [3]. A single His residue is responsible for this switch in substrate preference [3, 4]. All three enzymes share a unique MIO (4-methylidene-imidazole-5-one) prosthetic group at the active site. This is formed auto-catalytically from the tripeptide Ala-Ser-Gly by cyclization and dehydration during a late... 

The true biochemical significance of this deamination, and the function of the secondary metabolic pathway originating from L-phenylalanine (6-... 

Histidine ammonia-lyase is the first enzyme in the degradation pathway of L-histidine and catalyzes the nonoxidative deamination of histidine (12) to form w r-urocanic acid (13) plus ammonia (Equation (3)). Histidine ammonia-lyase is present in several bacteria and in animals. The mechanism for the reaction that is catalyzed by histidine ammonia-lyase is presumed to be similar to that described above for phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (see Scheme 3). 

In the oxidative deamination reaction, the enzyme was active toward N-[l-D-(carboxyl)ethyl]-L-methionine, N-[l-D-(carboxyl)ethyl]-L-phenylalanine, etc. The substrate specificity for amino donors of ODH in the reductive secondary amine-forming reaction was examined with pyruvate as a fixed amino acceptor [15,24]. The enzyme utilized L-norvaline, L-2-aminobutyric acid, L-norleucine, P-chloro-L-alanine, o-acetyl-L-serine, L-methionine, L-isoleucine, L-valine, L-phenylalanine, L-homophenylalanine, L-leucine, L-alanine, etc. 3-Aminobutyric acid and L-phenylalaninol also acted as substrates for the enzyme. Other amino compounds, such as P-amino acids, amino acid esters and amides, amino alcohols, organic amines, hydroxylamines, and hydrazines, were inactive as substrates. Pyruvate, oxaloacetate, glyoxylate, and a-ketobutyrate were good amino acceptors. We named the enzyme as opine... 

There are several examples of d to l inversion of amino acids in the literature. D-Phenylalanine may have therapeutic properties in endogenous depression and is converted to L-phenylalanine in humans [145]. o-Leucine is inverted to the L-enantiomer in rats. When o-enantiomer is administered, about 30% of the enantiomer is converted to the L-enantiomer with a measurable inversion from l to o-enantiomer. As indicated in Fig. 13, D-leucine is inverted to the L-enantiomer by two steps. It is first oxidized to a-ketoisocarproate (KIC) by o-amino acid oxidase. This a-keto acid is then asymmetrically reaminated by transaminase to form L-leucine. In addition, KIC may be decarboxylated by branched-chain a-keto acid dehydrogenase, resulting in an irreversible loss of leucine (Fig. 13) [146]. D-Valine undergoes a similar two-step inversion process, and this can be antagonized by other amino acids such as o-leucine. The primary factor appears to be interference with the deamination process [147]. 

A racemase brings about inversion of the relatively cheap (L)-isomers of alanine or aspartic acid, but not of (D)-phenylalanine. Only (L)-phenylalanine is deaminated by an (L)-amino acid deaminase, whereas (D)-phenylalanme is not. The latter is generated by ammonia transfer from (D)-alanine or (D)-aspar-tic acid with a (D)-amino acid aminotransferase. The equilibria are moved in favour of the product, either by the metabolism of pyruvic acid or oxosuccinic acid. Since (L)-amino acid deaminases, like (D)-amino add aminotransferases, are non-specific, they also permit the preparation of a variety of other (D)-amino acids. [58]... 

In plants and microorganisms cinnamic acid is formed from L-phenylalanine by phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL). This enzyme catalyzes the antiperiplanar elimination of the pro 3S-hydrogen atom and of the NHg-group to yield trans-cinnamic acid (Fig. 294). Most PAL preparations deaminate also L-tyrosine, but to a smaller extend. In some organisms a special tyrosine ammonia-lyase exists. 

The amino acids of animal tissue are involved in other reactions (1) oxidative deamination (2) non-oxidative decarboxylation (3) transamination (4) protein synthesis. Oxidative deamination is important only with respect to L-glutamate, which can be converted to 2-oxogJutarate and ammonia by glutamate dehydrogenase. Decarboxylation is confined to a few amino acids in animal tissue, notably glutamate, histidine, and (after hydroxylation) tryptophan and phenylalanine. In all cases, the products are potent pharmacological agents discussed under autocoid metabolism. Serine is also decarboxylated to ethanolamine, an important reaction which is referred to later in connection with transamination. 

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