Imines transamination

The mechanism of the first part of transamination is shown in Figure 29.14. The process begins with reaction between the a-amino acid and pyridoxal phosphate, which is covalently bonded to the aminotransferase by an iminc linkage between the side-chain -NTI2 group of a lysine residue and the PLP aldehyde group. Deprotonation/reprotonation of the PLP-amino acid imine in steps 2 and 3 effects tautomerization of the imine C=N bond, and hydrolysis of the tautomerized imine in step 4 gives an -keto acid plus pyridoxamine... 

Step 1 of Figure 29.14 Transimination The first step in transamination is trans-imination—the reaction of the PLP—enzyme imine with an a-amino acid to give a PLP—amino acid imine plus expelled enzyme as the leaving group. The reaction occurs by nucleophilic addition of the amino acid -NH2 group to the C=N bond of the PLP imine, much as an amine adds to the C=0 bond of a ketone or aldehyde in a nucleophilic addition reaction (Section 19.8). The pro-tonated diamine intermediate undergoes a proton transfer and expels the lysine amino group in the enzyme to complete the step. 

Hydrolysis of this PMP-n-keto acid imine in step 4 then completes the first part of the transamination reaction. The hydrolysis is the mechanistic reverse of... 

Hydrolysis of the a-keto acid imine by nucleophilic addition of water to the C=M bond gives the transamination products pyridoxamine phosphate (PMP) and a-keto acid. 

Figure 29.15 Mechanism of steps 2-4 of amino acid transamination, the conversion of a PLP-amino acid imine to PMP and an a-keto acid.

The deamination of primary amines such as phenylethylamine by Escherichia coli (Cooper et al. 1992) and Klebsiella oxytoca (Flacisalihoglu et al. 1997) is carried out by an oxidase. This contains copper and topaquinone (TPQ), which is produced from tyrosine by dioxygenation. TPQ is reduced to an aminoquinol that in the form of a Cu(l) radical reacts with O2 to form H2O2, Cu(ll), and the imine. The mechanism has been elucidated (Wihnot et al. 1999), and involves formation of a Schiff base followed by hydrolysis in reactions that are formally analogous to those involved in pyridoxal-mediated transamination. 

Several characterized NRPSs utilize alternative methods for chain termination. In some synthetases, the TE domain of the final module is replaced by an NAD(P)H-dependent reductase domain. Reduction of a peptidyl-S-PCP substrate through a two-electron reaction leads to the formation of a transient aldehyde, which is subsequently converted into a cyclic imine or hemiaminal through intramolecular cyclization. This two-electron reaction is utilized in the biosynthesis of nostocyclopeptides, the saframycins, ° and anthramycin. Alternatively, a four-electron reduction to the primary alcohol is observed in the biosynthesis of mycobacterial peptidolipids, linear gramicidin," " the myxalamides, lyngbyatoxin, " and myxochelin A 75,76 alternative four-electron reduction pathway involving aldehyde formation, transamination, and reduction to a primary amine occurs in the biosynthesis of myxochelin B. ... 

The terminology vitamin Bg covers a number of structurally related compounds, including pyridoxal and pyridoxamine and their 5 -phosphates. Pyridoxal 5 -phosphate (PLP), in particular, acts as a coenzyme for a large number of important enzymic reactions, especially those involved in amino acid metabolism. We shall meet some of these in more detail later, e.g. transamination (see Section 15.6) and amino acid decarboxylation (see Section 15.7), but it is worth noting at this point that the biological role of PLP is absolutely dependent upon imine formation and hydrolysis. Vitamin Bg deficiency may lead to anaemia, weakness, eye, mouth, and nose lesions, and neurological changes. 

Since the use of ammonia is not practical in transition metal catalyzed processes, the identification of its synthetic equivalents is of major importance. Benzophenone imine was found to couple with 3-bromopyridine readily under the above mentioned conditions (7.72.), The masking benzophenone was removed in transamination with hydroxylamine, which gave the desired 3-aminopyridine in 81% overall yield.92 Allylamine was also successfully employed as ammonia equivalent93... 

There is an important biochemical counterpart of the deamination reaction that utilizes pyridoxal phosphate, 7, as the aldehyde. Each step in the sequence is catalyzed by a specific enzyme. The a-amino group of the amino acid combines with 7 and is converted to a keto acid. The resulting pyridoxamine then reacts to form an imine with a different a-keto acid, resulting in formation of a new a-amino acid and regenerating 7. The overall process is shown in Equation 25-6 and is called transamination. It is a key part of the process whereby amino acids are metabolized. 

NMR studies have been carried out on Schiff bases derived from pyridoxal phosphate and amino acids, since they have been proposed as intermediates in many important biological reactions such as transamination, decarboxylation, etc.90 The pK.d values of a series of Schiff bases derived from pyridoxal phosphate and a-amino adds, most of which are fluorinated (Figure 11), have been derived from H and19F titration curves.91 The imine N atom was found to be more basic and more sensitive to the electron-withdrawing effect of fluorine than the pyridine N atom. Pyridoxal and its phosphate derivative are shown in Figure 12a. The Schiff base formation by condensation of both with octopamine (Figure 12b) in water or methanol solution was studied by 13C NMR. The enolimine form is favoured in methanol, while the ketoamine form predominates in water.92... 

Another interesting example of metal-directed chemistry involving the stabilisation and reactivity of imines is seen in the reaction of pyridoxal with amino acids. This reaction is at the basis of the biological transamination of amino acids to a-ketoacids, although the involvement of metal ions in the biological systems is not established. The reaction of pyridoxal (5.27) with an amino acid generates an imine (5.28), which is stabilised by co-ordination to a metal ion (Fig. 5-55). 

Pyrazines are formed from transamination reactions, in addition to carbon dioxide and formaldehyde. A requirement is that the carbonyl compound contains a dione and the amino group is alpha to the carboxyl group (16). If the hydrogen on the ct-carbon oI the amino acid is substituted, a ketone is produced. Newell (17) initially proposed a pyrazine formation mechanism between sugar and amino acid precursors. (See Figure 3). The Schiff base cation is formed by addition of the amino acid to the anomeric portion of the aldo-hexose, with subsequent losses of vater and a hydroxyl ion. Decarboxylation forms an imine which can hydrolyze to an aldehyde and a dienamine. Enolization yields a ketoamine, vhich dissociates to amino acetone and glyceraldehyde. 2,5-Dimethylpyrazine is formed by the condensation of the tvo molecules of amino acetone. 

The interest in the mechanisms of SchifF base hydrolysis stems largely from the fact that the formation and decomposition of SchifF base linkages play an important role in a variety of enzymatic reactions, for example, carbonyl transfers involving pyridoxal phosphate, aldol condensations, /3-decarboxylations and transaminations. The mechanisms for the formation and hydrolysis of biologically important SchifF bases, and imine intermediates, have been discussed by Bruice and Benkovic (1966) and by Jencks (1969). As the consequence of a number of studies (Jencks, 1959 Cordes and Jencks, 1962, 1963 Reeves, 1962 Koehler et al., 1964), the mechanisms for the hydrolysis of comparatively simple SchifF bases are reasonably well understood. From the results of a comprehensive kinetic investigation, the mechanisms for the hydrolysis of m- and p-substituted benzylidine-l,l-dimethylethylamines in the entire pH range (see, for example, the open circles in Fig. 13) have been discussed in terms of equations (23-26) (Cordes and Jencks, 1963) ... 

Benzophenone imine may be used as an ammonia equivalent with halopyridines as well. The coupHng of the bromopyridine below, followed by deprotection via transamination with hydroxylamine, proceeded in 81% yield over the two steps, Eq. (158) [ 128]. Analogously, Puttman found that allylamine could also be used as an ammonia equivalent in the C-N coupling reactions of halopyridines [114]. 

Pyridoxal or its phosphate is known to catalyze as imine forms 57 a number of enzymatic transformations of a-amino acids (e.g., transamination). It is suggested that 1,3-dipolar species 58, tautomers of imines 57 (or their metal chelates), are involved in some pyridoxal-dependent enzymatic reactions (78TL2823). Thus, pyridoxal imines 57 react as N-unsubstituted azomethine ylide 1,3-dipoles 58 with iV-phenylmaleimide in boiling toluene or xylene to give the cycloadducts 59. 

The carbonyl-assisted decarboxylation ofa-amino acids is closely related to an important reaction a decarboxylative transamination of N-unsubstituted o(-amino acids. It has been widely accepted that this decarboxylative transamination proceeds through the initial formation of imine carboxylic... 

Ninhydrin is allowed to react with a-amino acids in methanol at room temperature in the presence of N-phenylmaleimide to give stereoselective cycloadducts 104 in good yields, confirming the ylide intermediacy (84CC180). The N-unsubstituted azomethine ylide intermediates 103, when no dipolar-ophile is present, are transformed into a purple dye 106, called Ruhemann s purple, through a transamination into imine tautomers 105. This ninhydrin... 

The full structures of pyridoxamine and pyridoxal are on p. 1384. The incorporation of ammor. into a-keto-glutarate and the formation of glutamic acid by NADPH reduction of the imine is -p. 1386. The transamination from glutamic acid to pyridoxamine is on p. 1385. We start fr -pyridoxamine, whose structure we abbreviate, and pyruvate. Imine formation (fiiU mechanism pp. 348-50) followed by proton removal and replacement gives a new imine whose hydrolysis (f mechanism on pp. 350-1) gives alanine and pyridoxal. The alanine is a single enantiomer beca.s enzyme-directed protonation occurs on one face of the imine. Pyridoxal is recycled transamination with glutamic acid. 

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