Nucleophilic substitution reaction biological examples

Nucleophilic substitution is one of a variety of mechanisms by which living systems detoxify halogenated organic compounds introduced into the environment Enzymes that catalyze these reactions are known as haloalkane dehalogenases The hydrolysis of 1 2 dichloroethane to 2 chloroethanol for example is a biological nude ophilic substitution catalyzed by a dehalogenase... 

A typical second step after the insertion of CO into aryl or alkenyl-Pd(II) compounds is the addition to alkenes [148]. However, allenes can also be used (as shown in the following examples) where a it-allyl-r 3-Pd-complex is formed as an intermediate which undergoes a nucleophilic substitution. Thus, Alper and coworkers [148], as well as Grigg and coworkers [149], described a Pd-catalyzed transformation of o-iodophenols and o-iodoanilines with allenes in the presence of CO. Reaction of 6/1-310 or 6/1-311 with 6/1-312 in the presence of Pd° under a CO atmosphere (1 atm) led to the chromanones 6/1-314 and quinolones 6/1-315, respectively, via the Jt-allyl-r 3-Pd-complex 6/1-313 (Scheme 6/1.82). The enones obtained can be transformed by a Michael addition with amines, followed by reduction to give y-amino alcohols. Quinolones and chromanones are of interest due to their pronounced biological activity as antibacterials [150], antifungals [151] and neurotrophic factors [152]. 

Biochemistry is carbonyl chemistry. Almost all metabolic processes used by living organisms involve one or more of the four fundamental carbonyl-group reactions. For example, the digestion and metabolic breakdown of all the major classes of food molecules—fats, carbohydrates, and proteins—take place by nucleophilic addition reactions, nucleophilic acyl substitutions, a substitutions, and carbonyl condensations. Similarly, hormones and other crucial biological molecules are built up from smaller precursors by these same carbonyl-group reactions. 

There is, for example, no end-of-text chapter entitled Heterocyclic Compounds. Rather, heteroatoms are defined in Chapter 1 and nonaromatic heterocyclic compounds introduced in Chapter 3 heterocyclic aromatic compounds are included in Chapter 11, and their electrophilic and nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions described in Chapters 12 and 23, respectively. Heterocyclic compounds appear in numerous ways throughout the text and the biological role of two classes of them—the purines and pyrimidines—features prominently in the discussion of nucleic acids in Chapter 27. 

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