Dehydrogenases enzyme-coenzyme compounds

The main value of product inhibition studies of dehydrogenases has been to distinguish between ordered and random mechanisms and to provide additional kinetic estimates of the dissociation constants of enzyme-coenzyme compounds. On both counts the method has been especially useful for reactions that are essentially irreversible or for other reasons cannot be studied in both directions 122,138). It is also in such circumstances that product inhibition studies are most reliable because, as Alberty (7) emphasized when proposing the method, with readily reversible reactions it may be difficult to estimate true initial rates with small concentrations of substrates in the presence of a product. The reality of ternary complexes in an ordered mechanism of the Theorell-Chance type has also been demonstrated with several enzymes (134) by product inhibition studies. 

Introduction of a double bond. The /3-oxidation pathway begins when fatty acid forms a thiol ester with coenzyme A to give a fatty acyl CoA. Two hydrogen atoms are then removed from carbons 2 and 3 by an acyl CoA dehydrogenase enzyme to yield an ,/3-unsaturated acyl CoA. This kind of oxidation—the introduction of a conjugated double bond into a carbonyl compound—occurs frequently in biochemical pathways and is usually carried out by the coenz5nne flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAJ ). Reduced FADH is the by-product. 

Iron Sulfur Compounds. Many molecular compounds (18—20) are known in which iron is tetrahedraHy coordinated by a combination of thiolate and sulfide donors. Of the 10 or more stmcturaHy characterized classes of Fe—S compounds, the four shown in Figure 1 are known to occur in proteins. The mononuclear iron site REPLACE occurs in the one-iron bacterial electron-transfer protein mbredoxin. The [2Fe—2S] (10) and [4Fe—4S] (12) cubane stmctures are found in the 2-, 4-, and 8-iron ferredoxins, which are also electron-transfer proteins. The [3Fe—4S] voided cubane stmcture (11) has been found in some ferredoxins and in the inactive form of aconitase, the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific hydration—rehydration of citrate to isocitrate in the Krebs cycle. In addition, enzymes are known that contain either other types of iron sulfur clusters or iron sulfur clusters that include other metals. Examples include nitrogenase, which reduces N2 to NH at a MoFe Sg homocitrate cluster carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, which assembles acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) at a FeNiS site and hydrogenases, which catalyze the reversible reduction of protons to hydrogen gas. 

As its name implies, this complex transfers a pair of electrons from NADH to coenzyme Q a small, hydrophobic, yellow compound. Another common name for this enzyme complex is NADH dehydrogenase. The complex (with an estimated mass of 850 kD) involves more than 30 polypeptide chains, one molecule of flavin mononucleotide (FMN), and as many as seven Fe-S clusters, together containing a total of 20 to 26 iron atoms (Table 21.2). By virtue of its dependence on FMN, NADH-UQ reductase is a jlavoprotein. 

Biosensors constructed for ethanol and D-glucose measurements in beverages were built using ferrocene compounds as electron transfer mediators between the coenzyme PQQ of immobilized enzymes glucose (GDH) and alcohol (ADH) dehydrogenases and a carbon electrode surface <2003JOM(668)83>. 

The dehydrogenases discussed in this section catalyze the oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds. They utilize either NAD+ or NADP+ as coenzymes. The complex of the enzyme and coenzyme is termed the holoenzyme the free enzyme is called the apotnzyme. Some dehydrogenases are specific for just one of the coenzymes a few use both. The reactions are readily reversible, so that carbonyl compounds may be reduced by NADH or NADPH. The rates of reaction in either direction are conveniently measured by the appearance or disappearance of the reduced coenzyme, since it has a characteristic ultraviolet absorbance at 340 nm. The reduced coenzymes also fluoresce when they are excited at 340 nm, which provides an even more sensitive means of assay. 

Reductive amination reactions of keto acids are performed with amino acid dehydrogenases. NAD-dependent leucine dehydrogenase from Bacillus sp. is of interest for the synthesis of (S)-fert.-leucine [15-17]]. This chiral compound has found widespread application in asymmetric synthesis and as a building block of biologically active substances. The enzyme can also be used for the chemoenzy-matic preparation of (S)-hydroxy-valine [18] and unnatural hydrophobic bran-ched-chain (S)-amino acids. NAD-dependent L-phenylalanine dehydrogenase from Rhodococcus sp. [19] has been used for the synthesis of L-homophenyl-alanine ((S)-2-Amino-4-phenylbutanoic acid) [9]. These processes with water-soluble substrates and products demonstrate that the use of coenzymes must not... 

Ethylene glycol is used as a freezing-point depressant in automotive antifreeze. It is highly toxic because the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase and the coenzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) oxidize ethylene glycol to much more liver-toxic compounds like glyoxal, hydroxyacetaldehyde, glyoxylic... 

Coenzymes are usually more complex molecules than activators, although smaller molecules than the enzyme proteins themselves. Some compounds, such as the dinucleotides NAD and NADP, are classified as coenzymes and are specific substrates in two-substrate reactions. Their effect on the rate of reaction follows the Michaelis-Menten pattern of dependence on substrate concentration. The structures of these two coenzymes are identical except for the presence of an additional phosphate group in NADP nevertheless, individual dehydrogenases, for which these coenzymes are substrates, are predominantly or even absolutely specific for one or the other form. 

Dehydrogenases, classified under E.C.1.1., are enzymes that catalyze reduction and oxidation of carbonyl groups and alcohols, respectively I5l The natural substrates of the enzymes are alcohols such as ethanol, lactate, glycerol, etc. and the corresponding carbonyl compounds, but unnatural ketones can also be reduced enantiose-lectively. To exhibit catalytic activities, the enzymes require a coenzyme most of the dehydrogenases use NADH or NADPH, and a few use flavin, pyrroloquinoline quinone, etc. The reaction mechanism of the dehydrogenase reduction is as follows ... 

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