Isocitrate dehydrogenase, function

Colman, R.F. (1969) The role of sulfhydryl groups in the catalytic function of isocitrate dehydrogenase. I. Reaction with 5,5 -dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid). Biochemistry 8, 888. 

The enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase is one of the enzymes of the Krebs or citric acid cycle, a major feature in carbohydrate metabolism (see Section 15.3). This enzyme has two functions, the major one being the dehydrogenation (oxidation) of the secondary alcohol group in isocitric acid to a ketone, forming oxalosuccinic acid. This requires the cofactor NAD+ (see Section 11.2). For convenience, we are showing non-ionized acids here, e.g. isocitric acid, rather than anions, e.g. isocitrate. 

The second function, and the one pertinent to this section, is the decarboxylation of oxalosuccinic acid to 2-oxoglutaric acid. This is simply a biochemical example of the ready decarboxylation of a P-ketoacid, involving an intramolecular hydrogen-bonded system. This reaction could occur chemically without an enzyme, but it is known that isocitric acid, the product of the dehydrogenation, is still bound to the enzyme isocitrate dehydrogenase when decarboxylation occurs. 

There are two different forms of isocitrate dehydrogenase in all cells, one requiring NAD+ as electron acceptor and the other requiring NADP+. The overall reactions are otherwise identical. In eukaryotic cells, the NAD-dependent enzyme occurs in the mitochondrial matrix and serves in the citric acid cycle. The main function of the NADP-dependent enzyme, found in both the... 

RD Chen, P Gadal. Structure, function and regulation ofNAD- and NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenases in higher plants and in other organisms. Plant Physiol Biochem 28 411-427, 1990. 

DA Keys, L McAlister-Henn. Subunit structure, expression, and function of NAD(H)-specific isocitrate dehydrogenase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. JBacteriol 172 4280-4287, 1990. 

Krebs cycle intermediates (Table 5.12) and/or enzymes (Table 5.13). Nevertheless, certain key enzymes, especially aconitase and isocitrate dehydrogenase, are very low in activity or are undetectable in species such as H. diminuta, whereas only very small amounts of 14C02, a characteristic end-product of the TCA cycle, were liberated in vitro from [14C]glucose by the tetrathyridia of Mesocestoides corti (399) and adults of Cotugnia digonopora (618). The classical TCA cycle is, therefore, unlikely to function to any significant extent in these cestodes. 

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