Pyrimidin-4-ones uracils

The principal tautomeric properties of the fundamental biological pyrimidines—cytosine, uracil, and thymine—are due to the presence in these N-heteroaromatic compounds of electron-donor substituents such as NH2 and OH and of SH in some important analogs. The labile hydrogen may remain attached at the exocyclic 0, N, or S atom or migrate to one of the ring nitrogens, giving rise to three principal types of tautomerism (Scheme 1) ... 

Ribonucleases are a widely distributed family of en-zymes that hydrolyze RNA by cutting the P—O ester bond attached to a ribose 5 carbon (fig. 8.12). A good representative of the family is the pancreatic enzyme ribonuclease A (RNase A), which is specific for a pyrimidine base (uracil or cytosine) on the 3 side of the phosphate bond that is cleaved. When the amino acid sequence of bovine RNase A was determined in 1960 by Stanford Moore and William Stein, it was the first enzyme and only the second protein to be sequenced. RNase A thus played an important role in the development of ideas about enzymatic catalysis. It was one of the first enzymes to have its three-dimensional structure elucidated by x-ray diffraction and was also the first to be synthesized completely from its amino acids. The synthetic protein proved to be enzymatically indistinguishable from the native enzyme. 

The dependence of adlayer structure on the molecular structures has been examined in a comparative study of the 3 pyrimidine bases, uracil, thymine and 3-methyl uracil. In situ STM imaging of thymine shows that an adlayer geometry similar to uracil is adopted, with the exception that the adlayer is expanded in one unit cell dimension. An in situ STM image of th5miine chemisorbed on Au(l 11) from 10 mM th5miine and 10 mM HCIO4 is shown in Fig. 7-9A. 

The most studied diazine derivatives are the oxy- and amino-pyrimidines, since uracil, thymine and cytosine are found as bases in DNA and RNA. Carbonyl tautomers are the preferred forms. It is the enamide-Uke character of the double bonds in diazine diones that allows electrophilic substitution - uracil, for example, can be brominated at C-5. One amino-substituent permits electrophilic ring substitution and two amino, or one amino and one oxy, substituents, permit substitution with even weakly electrophilic reactants. 

Khattak and Wang (1969) have isolated two products from uracil irradiated with ultraviolet light in frozen aqueous solution. Evidence from NMR, UV, IR, and mass spectra suggest that one is a photopolymer, Uj, and the other is probably 6-4 -[pyrimidin-2 -one]-uracil. 

In addition to the intramolecular effects, steric factors are of considerable influence. The most usual one consists of steric hindrance to attack on the lactam nitrogen atom. Certain examples of this will be given. By comparison with uracil, it would be expected that uric acid (10) would be iV-methylated in the pyrimidine ring, but that in the imidazole ring 0-methylation should also be possible. However, the experiments of Biltz and Max show that all uric acid derivatives which carry a hydrogen atom in the 9-position are converted by ethereal diazomethane into l,3,7-trimethyl-8-methoxyxanthine (11). The following are examples uric acid and its 1-methyl, 3-methyl, 7-methyl, 1,3-dimethyl, 1,7-dimethyI, 3,7-dimethyl, and 1,3,7-trimethyl derivatives. Uric acid derivatives which arc substituted by alkyl groups in the 3- and 9-positions (e.g., 3,9-dimethyl-, 1,3,9-trimethyl-, and 3,7,9-trimethyl-uric acid)do not react at all with diazomethane, possibly because of insufficient acidity. Uric acids which are alkylated... 

There are CN/CC replacements reported which involve the participation of a two-carbon side-chain, present as substituent in the pyrimidine system. An example is the formation of 4-alkylaminopyridin-2-ones on alkaline hydrolysis of 6-[2-(dimethylamino)vinyl]uracils (R = Me, Ph, CH2Ph ... 

Pyrimidine and imidazole rings are particularly important in biological chemistry. Pyrimidine, for instance, is the parent ring system in cytosine, thymine, and uracil, three of the five heterocyclic amine bases found in nucleic acids An aromatic imidazole ring is present in histidine, one of the twenty amino acids found in proteins. 

The one-pot MCR of methylene active nitriles 47 has been used in the synthesis of both pyrano- and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine-2,4-diones in a single-mode microwave reactor [90]. Microwave irradiation of either barbituric acids 61 or 6-amino- or 6-(hydroxyamino)uracils 62 with triethyl-orthoformate and nitriles 47 (Z = CN, C02Et) with acetic anhydride at 75 °C for 2-8 min gave pyrano- and pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidines in excellent yield and also provided a direct route to pyrido[2,3-d]pyrimidine N-oxides (Scheme 27). 

Nucleotides can be linked together into oligonucleotides through a phosphate bridge at the 5 position of one ribose unit and the 3 position of another. The purine bases, adenine and guanine, have two heterocyclic rings, while the pyrimidines cytosine, thymine, and uracil have one. The structure of adenosine monophosphate is shown in Figure 11. 

Partly saturated pyrazino[l,2-r-]pyrimidines were prepared by formation of the pyrazine ring. 2-Substituted-8-hydroxy-3,4-dihydro-177,277-pyrazino[l,2-r-]pyrimidin-l-ones were prepared by a [6+0] synthesis involving cyclization of 6-hydroxy-pyrimidine-4-(fV-hydroxyethyl)carboxamides <2005W02005/087766>. The 2/7-pyra-zino[l,2-c]pyrimidine-3-carboxamide 164 (Y = NH) was formed from [5+1] atom fragments via the uracil derivative 163 (Y = NH) and DMF-dimethyl acetal. Compounds 163 were prepared from 6-chloromethyluracil and glycine methyl ester 162 (Y = NH) (Scheme 20) <2004W02004/014354>. 

Nucleic acids can contain of any one of three kinds of pyrimidine ring systems (uracil, cytosine, or thymine) or two types of purine derivatives (adenine or guanine). Adenine, guanine, thymine, and cytosine are the four main base constituents found in DNA. In RNA molecules, three of these four bases are present, but with thymine replaced by uracil to make up the fourth. Some additional minor derivatives are found in messenger RNA (mRNA), transfer RNA (tRNA), and ribosomal RNA (rRNA), particularly the N4,N4-dimethyladenine and N7-methylguanine varieties. 

Moderately simple syntheses have been performed for the purines cytosine and uracil but nothing seems to work as a prebiotic synthesis of the pyrimidines. Then adding the sugar ribose to the base makes them nucleosides and one phosphoric acid residue makes it a nucleotide, or specifically a mononucleotide a rare but curiously important sequence of events in present-day life but perhaps not for prebiotic chemistry and early life forms. 

Pyrimidines have only one ring. Cytosine (C) is present in both DNA and RNA. Thymine (T) is usually found only in DNA, whereas uracil (U) is found only in RNA. 

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