Fumarate, hydration malate from

A general type of chemical reaction between two compounds, A and B, such that there is a net reduction in bond multiplicity (e.g., addition of a compound across a carbon-carbon double bond such that the product has lost this 77-bond). An example is the hydration of a double bond, such as that observed in the conversion of fumarate to malate by fumarase. Addition reactions can also occur with strained ring structures that, in some respects, resemble double bonds (e.g., cyclopropyl derivatives or certain epoxides). A special case of a hydro-alkenyl addition is the conversion of 2,3-oxidosqualene to dammara-dienol or in the conversion of squalene to lanosterol. Reactions in which new moieties are linked to adjacent atoms (as is the case in the hydration of fumarate) are often referred to as 1,2-addition reactions. If the atoms that contain newly linked moieties are not adjacent (as is often the case with conjugated reactants), then the reaction is often referred to as a l,n-addition reaction in which n is the numbered atom distant from 1 (e.g., 1,4-addition reaction). In general, addition reactions can take place via electrophilic addition, nucleophilic addition, free-radical addition, or via simultaneous or pericycUc addition. 

This enzyme is highly stereospecific it catalyzes hydration of the trans double bond of fumarate but not the cis double bond of maleate (the cis isomer of fumarate). In the reverse direction (from L-malate to fumarate), fumarase is equally stereospecific D-malate is not a substrate. 

Generally speaking, these distinctions have not been observed by biochemists. Stereoselective has been little used, and stereospecific has been used to cover almost all aspects of the impact of stereochemical influences on reactions in living tissues or enzyme systems. Consider, for instance, the enzymatic hydration of fumarate by the enzyme, fumarase. Since there is a relationship between the structure of the substrate and product, the process could be described as stereospecific. Yet the definition of stereospecific requires that it be shown that the isomer of fumaric acid gives rise to a product which is stereochemically different from L-malate. Since the enzyme, however, does not catalyze any reaction with the (Z)-isomer (maleic acid) it is not clear whether stereospecific actually applies. 

Fumarate hydratase. The most studied enzyme of this group is probably the porcine mitochondrial fumarate hydratase (fumarase see also Chapter 9), a tetramer of 48.5-kDa subunits with a turnover number of 2 x 10 s T It accelerates the hydration reaction more than lO -fold. A similar enzyme, the 467-residue fumarase C whose three-dimensional structure is known, is foxmd in cells of E. coli when grown aerobically. The product of the fumarate hydratase reaction is L-malate (S-malate). The stereospecificity is extremely high. If the reaction is carried out in HjO an atom of H is incorporated into the pro-R position, i.e., the proton is added strictly from the re face of the trigonal carbon (Eq. 13-12). To obtain L-malate the hydroxyl must have been added from the opposite side of the double bond. Such anti (trans) addition is much more common in both nonenzymatic and enzymatic reactions than is addition of both H and OH (or -Y) from the same side (syn, cis, or adjacent addition). For concerted addition it is a natural result of stereoelectronic control. Almost all enzymatic addition and elimination reactions involving free carboxylic acids are anti with the proton entering from the re face. 

The mechanism of ll hydroxylation has been examined by tracer techniques using both deuterium and oxygeu-18. No deuterium is introduced into the product when the hydroxylation (of 11-deoxy-cortisol) is carried out in D2O (335). This observation rules out mechanisms of hydroxylation in which dehydrogenation is followed by hydration, as in the prototype succinate-fumarate-malate. In confirmation of this, A -unsatiuated analogues of deoxycorticosterone are not hydroxylated by mitochondrial preparations (335). When enzymic hydroxylation is carried out in media enriched with 0 , it is found that the oxygen of the 1 l-hydroxysteroids is derived from molecular oxygen (336,724) (Table XIV). The same results have been obtained in hydroxylations carried out by microorganisms (Table XV) (72,337). 

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