Pyruvic donors

As mentioned above, special attention has to be paid to the distinct properties of pyruvated glycosyl donors in order to achieve the efficient synthesis of related oligosaccharides. This Section will give a glimpse of the numerous problems which may be encountered during classical couplings of pyruvated donors. 

ThDP-Dependent 2-Succinyl-5-enolpyruvyl-6-hydroxy-3-cyclohexene-1-carboxylate synthase (MenD) from E. coli K12 Catalyzed Acyloin Condensations Using a-Ketoglutarate and Pyruvate Donors, Respectively... 

Subsequently, the catalytic potentials of chiral primary-tertiary diamines have been further explored in the direct aldol reactions of pyruvic donors. Primary-tertiary diamine-TfOH conjugate can effectively catalyze the coupling of pyruvic... 

A possible explanation for the superiority of the amino donor, L-aspartic add, has come from studies carried out on mutants of E. coli, in which only one of the three transaminases that are found in E. coli are present. It is believed that a branched chain transaminase, an aromatic amino add transaminase and an aspartate phenylalanine aspartase can be present in E. coli. The reaction of each of these mutants with different amino donors gave results which indicated that branched chain transminase and aromatic amino add transminase containing mutants were not able to proceed to high levels of conversion of phenylpyruvic add to L-phenylalanine. However, aspartate phenylalanine transaminase containing mutants were able to yield 98% conversion on 100 mmol l 1 phenylpyruvic acid. The explanation for this is probably that both branched chain transaminase and aromatic amino acid transminase are feedback inhibited by L-phenylalanine, whereas aspartate phenylalanine transaminase is not inhibited by L-phenylalanine. In addition, since oxaloacetate, which is produced when aspartic add is used as the amino donor, is readily converted to pyruvic add, no feedback inhibition involving oxaloacetate occurs. The reason for low conversion yield of some E. coli strains might be that these E. cdi strains are defident in the aspartate phenylalanine transaminase. 

A new development is the industrial production of L-phenylalanine by converting phenylpyruvic add with pyridoxalphosphate-dependent phenylalanine transaminase (see Figure A8.16). The biotransformation step is complicated by an unfavourable equilibrium and the need for an amino-donor (aspartic add). For a complete conversion of phenylpyruvic add, oxaloacetic add (deamination product of aspartic add) is decarboxylated enzymatically or chemically to pyruvic add. The use of immobilised . coli (covalent attachment and entrapment of whole cells with polyazetidine) is preferred in this process (Figure A8.17). 

Due to mechanistic requirements, most of these enzymes are quite specific for the nucleophilic component, which most often is dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP, 3-hydroxy-2-ox-opropyl phosphate) or pyruvate (2-oxopropanoate), while they allow a reasonable variation of the electrophile, which usually is an aldehyde. Activation of the donor substrate by stereospecific deprotonation is either achieved via imine/enamine formation (type 1 aldolases) or via transition metal ion induced enolization (type 2 aldolases mostly Zn2 )2. The approach of the aldol acceptor occurs stereospecifically following an overall retention mechanism, while facial differentiation of the aldehyde is responsible for the relative stereoselectivity. 

The yeast pyruvate decarboxylase is rather specific with respect to the acyl moiety that is added to the aldehyde. Only a few 2-oxo acids can be used as acyl donors besides pyruvic-acid39. For example, treatment of benzaldehyde with 2-oxobutanoic acid and 2-oxopentanoic acid, respectively, and prewashed Saccharomyces cerevisiae gave the corresponding (/ )-acyloin derivatives in 15 25% yield with an enantiomeric excess >95%. 

Extensive studies have indicated that only pyruvate is acceptable as the NeuA donor substrate, with the exception of fluoropyruvate [49], but that the enzyme displays a fairly broad tolerance for stereochemically related aldehyde substrates as acceptor alternatives, such as a number of sugars and their derivatives larger or equal to pentoses [36,48,50,51]. Permissible variations include replacement of the natural D-manno configured substrate (4) with derivatives containing modifications such as epimerization, substitution, or deletion at positions C-2, -4, or -6 [16,27]. Epimeriza-tion at C-2, however, is restricted to small polar substituents owing to strongly... 

Pyruvate flavodoxin oxidoreductase Flavodoxin electron donor to nitrogenase... 

Figure 28-3. Formation of alanine by transamination of pyruvate. The amino donor may be glutamate or aspartate. The other product thus is a-ketoglutarate or oxaloacetate.

Attention is drawn to the dechlorination by anaerobic bacteria of both chlorinated ethenes and chlorophenolic compounds that serve as electron acceptors with electron donors including formate, pyruvate, and acetate. This is termed dehalorespiration and is important in the degradation of a range of halogenated compounds under anaerobic conditions, and is discussed further in Chapter 3, Part 2 and Chapter 7, Part 3. 

Bacteria have been isolated using reduced anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonate (HjAQDS) as electron donor and nitrate as electron acceptor (Coates et al. 2002). The organisms belonged to the a-, p-, y-, and 5-subdivision of the Proteobacteria, and were able to couple the oxidation of H AQDS to the reduction of nitrate with acetate as the carbon source. In addition, a number of C2 and C3 substrates could be used including propionate, butyrate, fumarate, lactate, citrate, and pyruvate. 

A nonfermentative organism putatively assigned to Desulfuromonas acetexigens reduced tetrachloroethene to c -dichloroethene using acetate as electron donor (Krumholz et al. 1996), and a similar species D. chloroethenica used both tetra- and trichloroethene as electron acceptors with the production of cw-dichloroethene using acetate or pyruvate as electron donors (Krumholz 1997). 

Aldolases catalyze asymmetric aldol reactions via either Schiff base formation (type I aldolase) or activation by Zn2+ (type II aldolase) (Figure 1.16). The most common natural donors of aldoalses are dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP), pyruvate/phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP), acetaldehyde and glycine (Figure 1.17) [71], When acetaldehyde is used as the donor, 2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolases (DERAs) are able to catalyze a sequential aldol reaction to form 2,4-didexoyhexoses [72,73]. Aldolases have been used to synthesize a variety of carbohydrates and derivatives, such as azasugars, cyclitols and densely functionalized chiral linear or cyclic molecules [74,75]. 

HCN is detoxified to thiocyanate (SCN ) by the mitochondrial enzyme rhodanese rhodanese catalyzes the transfer of sulfur from thiosulfate to cyanide to yield thiocyanate, which is relatively nontoxic (Smith 1996). The rate of detoxification of HCN in humans is about 1 pg/kg/min (Schulz 1984) or 4.2 mg/h, which, the author states, is considerably slower than in small rodents. This information resulted from reports of the therapeutic use of sodium nitroprusside to control hypertension. Rhodanese is present in the liver and skeletal muscle of mammalian species as well as in the nasal epithelium. The mitochondria of the nasal and olfactory mucosa of the rat contain nearly seven times as much rhodanese as the liver (Dahl 1989). The enzyme rhodanese is present to a large excess in the human body relative to its substrates (Schulz 1984). This enzyme demonstrates zero-order kinetics, and the limiting factor in the detoxification of HCN is thiosulphate. However, other sulfur-containing substrates, such as cystine and cysteine, can also serve as sulfur donors. Other enzymes, such as 3-mercapto-pyruvate sulfur transferase, can convert... 

The metabolism of cyanide has been studied in animals. The proposed metabolic pathways shown in Figure 2-3 are (1) the major pathway, conversion to thiocyanate by either rhodanese or 3-mercapto-pyruvate sulfur transferase (2) conversion to 2-aminothiazoline-4-carboxylic acid (Wood and Cooley 1956) (3) incorporation into a 1-carbon metabolic pool (Boxer and Richards 1952) or (4) combining with hydroxocobalamin to form cyanocobalamin (vitamin B12) (Ansell and Lewis 1970). Thiocyanate has been shown to account for 60-80% of an administered cyanide dose (Blakley and Coop 1949 Wood and Cooley 1956) while 2-aminothiazoline-4-carboxylic acid accounts for about 15% of the dose (Wood and Cooley 1956). The conversion of cyanide to thiocyanate was first demonstrated in 1894. Conversion of cyanide to thiocyanate is enhanced when cyanide poisoning is treated by intravenous administration of a sulfur donor (Smith 1996 Way 1984). The sulfur donor must have a sulfane sulfur, a sulfur bonded to another sulfur (e.g., sodium thiosulfate). During conversion by rhodanese, a sulfur atom is transferred from the donor to the enzyme, forming a persulfide intermediate. The persulfide sulfur is then transferred... 

The same group have used the enzyme combination employed in the aspartate deracemization cited above to deracemize 2-naphthylalanine, hut have made use of an interesting innovation introduced by Helaine et al to pull over the poised equilibrium of the transamination reaction. Cysteine sulphinic acid was used as the amino donor in the transamination. The oxoacid product spontaneously decomposes in to pyruvic acid and SO2 (Scheme 3). 

Keon et al. (1997) showed that the Hmc complex is present in D. vulgaris at its highest concentration when hydrogen is the sole electron donor for sulfate reduction. The presence of lactate or pyruvate led to a decreased content of the Hmc complex, as shown by immunoblotting studies. Deletion of two genes downstream from the hmc operon, rrfl and rrfl, led to a twofold increased content of the Hmc complex and a more rapid growth with hydrogen as the electron donor. 

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