Phosphopentose-3-epimerase

FIGURE 23.31 The phosphopentose epimerase reaction interconverts ribulose-5-P and xylulose-5-phosphate. The mechanism involves an enediol intermediate and occurs with inversion at C-3. 

Details of these reactions, showing the structures of the molecules involved, are given in Fig. 1. These reactions require xylulose 5-phosphate as well as ribose-5-phosphate. Xylulose 5-phosphate is an epimer (see Topic Jl) of ribulose 5-phosphate and is made by phosphopentose epimerase ... 

Finally, ribose-5-phosphate is converted into ribulose 5-phosphate by phosphopentose isomerase while xylulose 5-phosphate is converted into ribulose 5-phosphate by phosphopentose epimerase. Ribulose 5-phosphate is converted into ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate through the action of phosphoribulose kinase (Figure 20,11). The sum of these reactions is... 

The donor of the two-carbon unit in this reaction is xylulose 5-phosphate, an epimer of ribulose 5-phosphate. A ketose is a substrate of transketolase only if its hydroxyl group at C-3 has the configuration of xylulose rather than ribulose. Ribulose 5-phosphate is converted into the appropriate epimer for the transketolase reaction by phosphopentose epimerase (see Figure 20.11) in the reverse reaction of that which occurs in the Calvin cycle. 

Xylulose 5-phosphate can be formed from ribose 5-phosphate by the sequential action of phosphopentose isomerase and phosphopentose epimerase, and so the net reaction starting from ribose 5-phosphate is... 

Ribulose 5-phosphate xylulose 5-phosphate Phosphopentose epimerase... 

The pentose phosphate pathway also catalyzes the interconversion of three-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-carbon sugars in a series of non-oxidative reactions. All these reactions occur in the cytosol, and in plants part of the pentose phosphate pathway also participates in the formation of hexoses from CO2 in photosynthesis. Thus, D-ribulose 5-phosphate can be directly converted into D-ribose 5-phosphate by phosphopentose isomerase, or to D-xylulose 5-phosphate by phosphopentose epimerase. D-Xylulose 5-phosphate can then be combined with D-ribose 5-phosphate to give rise to sedoheptulose 7-phosphate and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate. This reaction is a transfer of a two-carbon unit catalyzed by transketolase. Both products of this reaction can be further converted into erythrose 4-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate. The four-carbon sugar phosphate erythrose 4-phosphate can then enter into another transketolase-catalyzed reaction with the D-xylulose 5-phosphate to form glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate, both of which can finally enter glycolysis. 

The answer is e. (Murray, pp 219-229. Scrivei pp 1521-1552. Sack, pp 121-138. Wilson, pp 287-317.) The pentose phosphate pathway generates reducing power in the form of NADPH in the oxidative branch of the pathway and synthesizes five-carbon sugars in the nonoxidative branch of the pathway. The pentose phosphate pathway also carries out the interconversion of three-, four-, five-, six-, and seven-carbon sugars in the nonoxidative reactions. The final sugar product of the oxidative branch of the pathway is ribulose-5-phosphate. The first step of the nonoxidative branch of the pathway is the conversion of ribulose-5-phosphate to ribose-5-phosphate or xylulose-5-phosphate in the presence of the enzymes phosphopentose isomerase and phosphopentose epimerase, respectively. Thus ribulose-5-phosphate is a key intermediate that is common to both the oxidative and nonoxidative branches of the pentose phosphate pathway. 

Phosphogluconate Dehydrogenase Phosphopentose Isomerase Phosphopentose Epimerase Transketolase... 

Carbon shuffling. Ribose 5-phosphate labeled with " C at C-1 is added to a solution containing transketolase, transaldolase, phosphopentose epimerase, phosphopentose isomerase, and glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate. What is the distribution of the radioactive label in the erythrose 4-phosphate and fructose 6-phosphate that are formed in this reaction mixture ... 

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