Isoleucine, structure

From a map at low resolution (5 A or higher) one can obtain the shape of the molecule and sometimes identify a-helical regions as rods of electron density. At medium resolution (around 3 A) it is usually possible to trace the path of the polypeptide chain and to fit a known amino acid sequence into the map. At this resolution it should be possible to distinguish the density of an alanine side chain from that of a leucine, whereas at 4 A resolution there is little side chain detail. Gross features of functionally important aspects of a structure usually can be deduced at 3 A resolution, including the identification of active-site residues. At 2 A resolution details are sufficiently well resolved in the map to decide between a leucine and an isoleucine side chain, and at 1 A resolution one sees atoms as discrete balls of density. However, the structures of only a few small proteins have been determined to such high resolution. 

The nonpolar amino acids (Figure 4.3a) include all those with alkyl chain R groups (alanine, valine, leucine, and isoleucine), as well as proline (with its unusual cyclic structure), methionine (one of the two sulfur-containing amino acids), and two aromatic amino acids, phenylalanine and tryptophan. Tryptophan is sometimes considered a borderline member of this group because it can interact favorably with water via the N-H moiety of the indole ring. Proline, strictly speaking, is not an amino acid but rather an a-imino acid. 

FIGURE 4.14 The stereoisomers of isoleucine and threonine. The structures at the far left are the naturally occurring isomers. 

Chemical structure. The structure of the free base of Cypridina luciferin (C22H27ON7, Mr 405.50) was determined by Kishi et al. (1966a,b) as shown below (A) its sec-butyl group is in the same configuration as in L-isoleucine. The structure of oxyluciferin reported by the same authors contained an error, and the structure was corrected later as shown in Fig. 3.1.8 (McCapra and Chang, 1967 Stone, 1968). 

C13-0046. Draw the structures of all possible products resulting from condensation reactions between aspartic acid and isoleucine ... 

The target of mupirocin is one of a group of enzymes which couple amino acids to their respective tRNAs for delivery to the ribosome and incorporation into protein. The particular enzyme inhibited by mupirocin is involved in producing isoleucyl-tRNA. The basis for the inhibition is a structural similarity between one end of the mupirocin molecule and isoleucine. Protein synthesis is halted when the ribosome encounters the isoleucine codon through depletion of the pool of isoleucyl-tRNA. 

T. Kohno, D. Kohda, M. Haruki, S. Yokoyama, and T. Miyazawa, Non-protein amino acid furanomycin, unlike isoleucine in chemical structure, is changed to isoleucine tRNA by isoleucyl-tRNA synthetase and incorporated into protein. J. Biol. 

Figure 7.10 Chemical structure of SB-234764, a tight binding bisubstrate inhibitor of bacterial isoleucine tRNA synthetase.

The molecules of two organic compounds are sometimes composed of the same type and number of atoms, but arranged in different ways. The molecular formula of each one of such compounds, which are known as isomers (for example, isoleucine and alloisoleucine, shown in Fig. 73), is therefore identical to that of the other only the structural formulas of the two isomers show the differences between their molecules (see Textbox 63). 

Peters, D., and J. Peters. 1982. Quantum Theory of the Structure and Bonding in Proteins Part 13. The p branched hydrocarbon side chains valine and isoleucine. J. Mol. Struct. (Theochem) 88,157-170. 

One of the most distinguishing features of metabolic networks is that the flux through a biochemical reaction is controlled and regulated by a number of effectors other than its substrates and products. For example, as already discovered in the mid-1950s, the first enzyme in the pathway of isoleucine biosynthesis (threonine dehydratase) in E. coli is strongly inhibited by its end product, despite isoleucine having little structural resemblance to the substrate or product of the reaction [140,166,167]. Since then, a vast number of related... 

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