Methionine-specific reactions

The investigations of W. H. Stein and Moore and their colleagues were first reported in 1959 157). The inactivation of RNase by iodo-acetate was studied. A maximum in the rate of activity loss was noted at pH 5.5. Reaction with a methionine residue was found at pH 2.8 at pH 8.5-10 lysine residues were modified, but at pH 5.5-6.0 only histidine appeared to be involved. The specific reaction required the structure of the native enzyme. Reaction with histidine was not observed under a variety of denaturing conditions 158). Iodoacetamide did not cause activity loss, or only very slow loss, or alkylate His 119 in the native enzyme at pH 5.5. The negative charge on the carboxyl group of the iodoacetate ion was apparently essential. 

Fatty acids with odd numbers of carbon atoms are rare in mammals, but fairly common in plants and marine organisms. Humans and animals whose diets include these food sources metabolize odd-carbon fatty acids via the /3-oxida-tion pathway. The final product of /3-oxidation in this case is the 3-carbon pro-pionyl-CoA instead of acetyl-CoA. Three specialized enzymes then carry out the reactions that convert propionyl-CoA to succinyl-CoA, a TCA cycle intermediate. (Because propionyl-CoA is a degradation product of methionine, valine, and isoleucine, this sequence of reactions is also important in amino acid catabolism, as we shall see in Chapter 26.) The pathway involves an initial carboxylation at the a-carbon of propionyl-CoA to produce D-methylmalonyl-CoA (Figure 24.19). The reaction is catalyzed by a biotin-dependent enzyme, propionyl-CoA carboxylase. The mechanism involves ATP-driven carboxylation of biotin at Nj, followed by nucleophilic attack by the a-carbanion of propi-onyl-CoA in a stereo-specific manner. 

Proteins can be cleaved specifically at the amide bond on the carboxyl side of methionine residues by reaction with cyanogen bromide. BrC=N. 

Hydantoinases belong to the E.C.3.5.2 group of cyclic amidases, which catalyze the hydrolysis of hydantoins [4,54]. As synthetic hydantoins are readily accessible by a variety of chemical syntheses, including Strecker reactions, enantioselective hydantoinase-catalyzed hydrolysis offers an attractive and general route to chiral amino acid derivatives. Moreover, hydantoins are easily racemized chemically or enzymatically by appropriate racemases, so that dynamic kinetic resolution with potential 100% conversion and complete enantioselectivity is theoretically possible. Indeed, a number of such cases using WT hydantoinases have been reported [54]. However, if asymmetric induction is poor or ifinversion ofenantioselectivity is desired, directed evolution can come to the rescue. Such a case has been reported, specifically in the production of i-methionine in a whole-cell system ( . coli) (Figure 2.13) [55]. 

Besides short ELPS, longer ELPs have also been conjugated to synthetic polymers. In one approach, Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition click chemistry was applied. For this purpose, ELPs were functionalized with azides or alkynes via incorporation of azidohomoalanine and homopropargyl glycine, respectively, using residue-specific replacement of methionine in ELP via bacterial expression [133]. More recently, an alternative way to site-selectively introduce azides into ELPs was developed. Here, an aqueous diazotransfer reaction was performed directly onto ELP[V5L2G3-90] using imidazole-1-sulfonyl azide [134]. 

In total the analysis of protein complexes indicates that methionine is the most likely group to bind to [PtCU]2 and [PtenClfc] probably by a displacement reaction. However a specific attachment to another residue such as histidine or sulphydryl can not be ruled out. Furthermore the antitumour activity is that of cis- [Pt (NH 3) 2CI2] and the di-functional character of this reagent has not been revealed so far by the above studies. In fact no attempt has been made to uncover the difference between [PtCl2(NH3)2] in its cis and fraMS-forms. 

Fig. 4 PEGylation at the N-terminal methionine residue. The difference in pKa. between the N-terminal amine and other amines in the protein enables site-specific PEGylation. After reaction with aldehyde-terminated PEG at low pH, reduction of the resultant imine produces PEGylated protein...

Although the primary utility of active halogen compounds is to modify sulfhydryl groups in proteins or other molecules, the reaction is not totally specific. Iodoacetyl (and bromoacetyl) derivatives can react with a number of functional groups within proteins the sulfhydryl group of cysteine, both imidazolyl side chain nitrogens of histidine, the thioether of methionine, and... 

In a similar exercise with D-methionine, Findrik and Vasic-Racki used the D-AAO of Arthrobacter, and for the second-step conversion of oxoacid into L-amino acid, used L-phenylalanine dehydrogenase (L-PheDH), which has a sufficiently broad specificity to accept L-methionine and its corresponding oxoacid as substrates. Efficient quantitative conversion in this latter reaction requires recycling of the cofactor NAD into NADH, and for this the commercially available formate dehydrogenase (FDH) was used (Scheme 2). 

DNA (cytosine-5-)-methyltransferase [EC 2.1.1.37] catalyzes the reaction of 5-adenosyl-L-methionine with DNA to produce 5-adenosyl-L-homocysteine and DNA containing a 5-methylcytosine residue. Site-specific DNA methyltransferase (cytosine-specific) [EC 2.1.1.73] catalyzes the reaction of 5-adenosyl-L-methionine with DNA containing a cytosine to produce 5-adenosyl-L-homocys-teine and DNA containing a 5-methylcytosine. 

The distinction between an initiating (5 )AUG and an internal one is straightforward. In bacteria, the two types of tRNA specific for methionine are designated tRNAMet and tRNAfMet. The amino acid incorporated in response to the (5 )AUG initiation codon is A7-formyl-methionine (fMet). It arrives at the ribosome as A7-formylmethionyl-tRNAfMet (fMet-tRNAfMet), which is formed in two successive reactions. First, methionine is attached to tRNAfMet by the Met-tRNA synthetase (which in E. coli aminoacylates both tRNAfMet and tRNAMet) ... 

Probably the most common and widespread control mechanisms in cells are allosteric inhibition and allosteric activation. These mechanisms are incorporated into metabolic pathways in many ways, the most frequent being feedback inhibition. This occurs when an end product of a metabolic sequence accumulates and turns off one or more enzymes needed for its own formation. It is often the first enzyme unique to the specific biosynthetic pathway for the product that is inhibited. When a cell makes two or more isoenzymes, only one of them may be inhibited by a particular product. For example, in Fig. 11-1 product P inhibits just one of the two isoenzymes that catalyzes conversion of A to B the other is controlled by an enzyme modification reaction. In bacteria such as E. coli, three isoenzymes, which are labeled I, II, and III in Fig. 11-3, convert aspartate to (3-aspartyl phosphate, the precursor to the end products threonine, isoleucine, methionine, and lysine. Each product inhibits only one of the isoenzymes as shown in the figure. 

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