Metal-sugar complexes shifts

An enzymic counterpart of these complex base-catalysed rearrangements of sugars may be the reaction catalysed by 4-phospho-3,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone synthetase. The enzyme catalyses the formation of the eponymous intermediate in secondary metabolism from ribulose 5-phosphate. Labelling studies indicated that C1-C3 of the substrate became C1-C3 of the product, that H3 of the substrate derived from solvent and that C4 was lost as formate. X-ray crystal structures of the native enzyme and a partly active mutant in complex with the substrate are available. The active site of the enzyme from Met ha-nococcus jannaschii contains two metals, which can be any divalent cations of the approximate radius of Mg " or Mn ", the two usually observed. Their disposition is very reminiscent of those in the hydride transfer aldose-ketose isomerases, but also to ribulose-5-phosphate carboxylase, which works by an enolisation mechanism, so the enolisation route suggested by Steinbacher et al. is repeated in Figure 6.14, as is the Bilik-type alkyl group shift, for which an equivalent reverse aldol-aldol mechanism cannot be written. 

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