Methyl group oxidation pathways

Ring and aryl methyl group oxidation were the initial toluene-degradation routes speculated on for the nitrate-reducing enrichment obtained by Kuhn etal. (1988) and the metabolically diverse iron-reducing bacterium Geobacter metallireducens (Lovley Lonergan, 1990). The speculation was consistent with the fact that both of these cultures could metabolize the appropriate suite of putative intermediates. However, conclusive evidence as to which pathway was actually involved was not obtained. 

In man, the metabolic pathways of mepirizole were distinct from those in experimental animals, since hydroxylation on each of the aromatic rings did not occur in man. Compound (752) was obtained by oxidation of the 3-methyl group to the carboxylic acid (a similar process occurs with 5-methylpyrazole-3-carboxylic acid, an active metabolite of 3,5-dimethylpyrazole). However, the carboxylic acid metabolite of mepirizole had no analgesic activity and did not decrease blood glucose. 

In contrast, dissimilation of acetate may take place by reversal of the pathway used by organisms snch as Clostridium thermoaceticum for the synthesis of acetate from COj. In the degradation of acetate, the pathway involves a dismutation in which the methyl group is successively oxidized via methyl THF to COj while the carbonyl group is oxidized via bound carbon monoxide. Snch THF-mediated reactions are of great importance in the anaerobic degradation of pnrines, which is discussed in Chapter 10, Part 1. 

In the first step of the reductive branch of this metabolic pathway three out of four methyl groups are transferred from methanol to CoM-SH (13) by methyl transferases, with formation of methyl-S-CoM (21) (Scheme 1) [21]. The transformation of 21 and CoB-SH (15) into methane and CoB-S-S-CoM (22) is catalyzed by the methyl-CoM reductase. Again, reductive cleavage of 22 is mediated by the heterodisulfide reductase [22]. The oxidative part involves oxidation of... 

The reactions unique to the pathway for Methanosarcina thermophila are shown in Figure 11.2 and Table 11.3. In the pathway, the carbon-carbon bond of acetate is cleaved, followed by reduction of the methyl group to methane with electrons originating from oxidation of the carbonyl group to carbon dioxide thus the pathway is a true fermentation. 

One-carbon units in different oxidation states are required in the pathways producing purines, thymidine, and many other compounds. When a biochemical reaction requires a methyl group (methylation), S-adenos dmethionme (SAM) is generally the methyl donor. If a one-carbon unit in another oxidation state is required (methylene, methenyl, formyl), tetrahydrofolate (THF) typically serves as its donor. 

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