Enzyme nucleotide acid anhydrides

The enzymic reactions responsible for anhydride synthesis are reversible, and in some cases such as in DPN S3rnthesis, the equilibrium constant is close to unity (387). There are, however, several mechanisms by which formation of a nucleotide acid anhydride can be encouraged, and its destruction by the reverse reaction prevented. This may be illustrated in the synthesis of adenosine-5 -phosphosulfate (APS) which takes place by a reversible reaction that strongly favors its destruction [Eq. (77)] (334)... 

The reaction is freely reversible and the enzyme catalyzing it has been called DPN pyrophos-phorylase. This transfer of one 5 -nucleotide to another produces a pyrophosphate bond between them. The reaction is the prototype of a large number of such nucleotidyl transfers to other phosphate compounds. These include transfers to various sugar phosphates to form the nucleoside diphosphate sugar coenzymes, to choline phosphate to form C3fiidine diphosphate choline, and to phosphatidic acid to form cytidine diphosphate diglyceride. This nucleotidyl transfer is the protot)q)e also for transfers of nucleotides to produce mixed acid anhydrides with fatty acids, amino acids, and sulfates. In each instance inorganic pyrophosphate is produced this is also true of the nucleotidyl transfers which produce RNA and DNA. 

Pantothenic acid, sometimes called vitamin B3, is a vitamin that makes up one part of a complex coenzyme called coenzyme A (CoA) (Figure 18.23). Pantothenic acid is also a constituent of acyl carrier proteins. Coenzyme A consists of 3, 5 -adenosine bisphosphate joined to 4-phosphopantetheine in a phosphoric anhydride linkage. Phosphopantetheine in turn consists of three parts /3-mercaptoethylamine linked to /3-alanine, which makes an amide bond with a branched-chain dihydroxy acid. As was the case for the nicotinamide and flavin coenzymes, the adenine nucleotide moiety of CoA acts as a recognition site, increasing the affinity and specificity of CoA binding to its enzymes. 

Regarding the origin of life problem, it remains to determine why this process has been selected by evolution whereas nearly no mixed anhydride is present at equilibrium in the absence of enzyme. If we assume the hypothesis that life emerged from a coevolution process involving both amino acid and nucleotide chemistries, it follows that the translation apparatus must have been formed very early. The only possibility that remains to explain the selection of highly unstable intermediates in peptide biosynthesis is to consider... 

Hampton, A., Sasaki, T., and Paul, B., Synthesis of 6 -cyano-6 -deoxyhomoadenosine-6 -phosphonic acid and its phosphoryl and pyrophosphoryl anhydrides and studies of their interactions with adenine nucleotide utilizing enzymes, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 95, 4404, 1973. 

Zhang, J., and Xu, X., Total synthesis of 6-ep/-sarsolilide A, Tetrahedron Lett., 41, 941, 2000. Boehm, H.M.. I landa, S., Pattenden, G., Roberts. L.. Blake, A.J., and Li, W.-S., Cascade radical cyclizations leading lo steroid ring constructions. Regio- and stereo-chemical studies using ester- and fluoroalkene substituted polyene acyl radical intermediates.,/. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1, 3522, 2000. Hampton, A.. Sasaki, T, and Paul, B., Synthesis of 6 -cyano-6 -deoxyhomoadenosine-6 -phosphonic acid and its phosphoryl and pyrophosphoryl anhydrides and studies of their interactions with adenine nucleotide utilizing enzymes, J. Am. Chem. Soc.. 95. 4404, 1973. 

The nucleotide anhydride, adenosine 5 -triphosphate (24), when digested with aqueous barium hydroxide, gives a complex mixture containing such products as adenine, adenosine, adenosine 2 -, 3 -, and 5 -phosphates, adenosine 5 -pyrophosphate, and adenosine 2 (or 3 ),5 -diphosphate. - In addition, a nucleotide was foimd in this digest whose structure proved - to be that of adenosine 3 5 -cyclic phosphate (25). This component did not consume metaperiodate, and was degraded enzymically to adenosine 5 -phosphate (26) and adenosine 3 -phosphate (27), without the formation of adenosine 2 -phosphate. Hydrolysis of (25) with an acidic ion-exchange resin did, however, produce the 2 - and 3 -phosphates of adenosine. Compound (25) possessed only one phosphoryl dissociation, and showed a ratio of nucleoside to phosphate of 1 1, which, along with a molecular-... 

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