Proline transamination

Removal of a-amino nitrogen by transamination (see Figure 28-3) is the first catabolic reaction of amino acids except in the case of proline, hydroxyproline, threonine, and lysine. The residual hydrocarbon skeleton is then degraded to amphibolic intermediates as outhned in Figure 30-1. 

Proline is oxidized to glutamate. Glutamate is transaminated or oxidatively deaminated to form a-ketoglutarate. 

Different molecular mechanisms have been separately postulated for dibromo-phakellin [74], dibromoagelaspongin [91], agelastatin [92], mauritiamine [88], and palau amine [78]. A1 Mourabit and Potier proposed a universal chemical pathway, starting from the simple precursors 101 and 140 and leading to over 60 pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids [80]. A new biomimetic spontaneous conversion of proline to 2-aminoimidazolinone derivatives using a self-catalyzed intramolecular transamination reaction together with peroxide dismutation as key step has been described [166]. This work has pointed to dispacamide A as the forerunner of oroidin and compounds 101 and 140 as probable hydrolysis products of oroidin and not the precursors. In this... 

Glutamic y-semialdehyde cyclizes with a loss of H2O in a nonenzymatic process to give A i-pyrroline-5-carboxylate, which is reduced by NADPH to proline. Alternatively, the semialdehyde can be transaminated to ornithine, which is converted in several steps into arginine (Section 23.4.1). 

All of the amino acids except lysine, threonine, proline, and hydroxyproline participate in transamination reactions. Transaminases exist for histidine, serine, phenylalanine, and methionine, but the major pathways of their metabolism do not involve transamination. Transamination of an amino group not at the a-position can also occur. Thus, transfer of 3-amino group of ornithine to a-ketoglutarate converts ornithine to glutamate-y-semialdehyde. 

Canaline is the product of the hydrolytic cleavage of canavanine with the simultaneous formation of urea. Canaline is an ornithine analogue which also shows neurotoxicity in the adult sexta where it adversely affects central nervous system functions (jj ). It also is a potent inhibitor of vitamin B -containing enzymes (20-22). It forms a stable Schiff base with the pyridoxal phosphate moiety of the enzyme and drastically curtails enzymatic activity. Pyridoxal phosphate-containing enzymes are vital to insects because they function in many essential transamination and decarboxylation reactions. Ornithine is an important metabolic precursor for insect production of glutamic acid and proline (23). 

Glutamate is a central amino acid in general amino-acid metabolism. It plays a major role in transamination, ammonia production, formation of ornithine, proline, glutamine, and g-amino butyric acid (GABA). 

Reaction 1 is a transamination reaction to form mercaptopyruvate. A transaminase in higher plants which will utilize cysteine or cystine as the amino donor has never been reported. In fact Forest and Wightman (1972) showed that cystine was not an amino donor to any keto acid tested with extracts of bush bean cotyledons or seedlings. It was unique in this respect in that the only other protein amino acids which acted in this manner were the two imino acids proline and hydroxyproline. 

The group of Gong and coworkers explored a biomimetic 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition between a-ketoester 79 and benzylamine derivatives 80 with electron-deficient olefins 81a,b to devise a straightforward route to proline derivatives 82 in high yields and enantioselectivities [49]. The proposed biomimetic three-component 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition proceeds as illustrated in Scheme 2.22a. The azomethine ylide B is formed, via a transamination from ketimine ester A, which is in turn prepared from a-ketoesters 79 and benzyl-amine derivatives 80 then, the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with electron-poor olefins 81a takes place. For this purpose, the bisphosphoric acid 83 was found to be the catalyst of choice to promote such transformation (Scheme 2.22b). Replacing dimethyl maleate (previously used as deficient olefins) by methyleneindolinones, the same approach could be extended to spirooxindoles synthesis in high yields and... 

Specific Transaminases. Transamination reactions are important in the metabolism of tyrosine, kynurenine, proline, and lysine. These reactions will be discussed later. Transamination in the synthesis of glucosamine has already been mentioned. 

---