Ribuloses

Ketoses like aldoses exist mainly as cyclic hemiacetals In the case of d ribulose furanose forms result from addition of the C 5 hydroxyl to the carbonyl group... 

In the biosynthesis of the thia2ole, cysteine is the common sulfur donor. In yeasts, the C-2 and N may be suppHed by glycine, and the remaining carbons byD-ribulose-5-phosphate [108321-99-9] (50). In anaerobic bacteria, the C-2 andN maybe recmited from tyrosine and the carbons from D-l-deoxyxylulose [16709-34-5] (51), whereas in aerobic bacteria the C-2 and N maybe derived from glycine, as in yeasts 7 (74—76,83—86) (see Fig. 9). 

Figure 4.8 The active site in all a/p barrels is in a pocket formed by the loop regions that connect the carboxy ends of the p strands with the adjacent a helices, as shown schematically in (a), where only two such loops are shown, (b) A view from the top of the barrel of the active site of the enzyme RuBisCo (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase), which is involved in CO2 fixation in plants. A substrate analog (red) binds across the barrel with the two phosphate groups, PI and P2, on opposite sides of the pocket. A number of charged side chains (blue) from different loops as welt as a Mg ion (yellow) form the substrate-binding site and provide catalytic groups. The structure of this 500 kD enzyme was determined to 2.4 A resolution in the laboratory of Carl Branden, in Uppsala, Sweden. (Adapted from an original drawing provided by Bo Furugren.)...

Knight, S., Andersson, I., Branden, C.-I. Crystallographic analysis of ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate carboxylase from spinach at 2.4 A resolution. Subunit interactions and active site. /. Mol. Biol. 215 113-160,... 

Schneider, G., Lindqvist, Y., Lundqvlst, T. Crystallographic refinement and structure of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase from Rhodospirillum rubrum at 1.7 A resolution. J. Mol. Biol. 

Up to this point all our attention has been directed toward aldoses, carbohydrates having an aldehyde function in their open-chain form. Aldoses are more common than ketoses, and their- role in biological processes has been more thoroughly studied. Nevertheless, a large number of ketoses are known, and several of them are pivotal intermediates in carbohydrate biosynthesis and metabolism. Examples of some ketoses include D-ribulose, L-xylulose, and /-fructose ... 

The addition of COg to ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate results in the formation of an enzyme-bound intermediate, 2-carboxy,3-keto-arabinitol (Figure 22.24). This intermediate arises when COg adds to the enediol intermediate gener-... 

H,COPO Ribulose-1,5-bis-phosphate (RuBP) carboxylase HCOH 1, H,C0P05 Two 3-Phospho- kinase 1,3-Blsphospho-glvcerate (BPG) dehydrogenase Glyceraldehydi 3-phosphate (G3P)... 

As discussed in Section 22.7, illumination of chloroplasts leads to light-driven pumping of protons into the thylakoid lumen, which causes pH changes in both the stroma and the thylakoid lumen (Figure 22.27). The stromal pH rises, typically to pH 8. Because rubisco and rubisco activase are more active at pH 8, COg fixation is activated as stromal pH rises. Fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, ribulose-5-phosphate kinase, and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase all have alkaline pH optima. Thus, their activities increase as a result of the light-induced pH increase in the stroma. 

As indicated, ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase catalyzes an alternative reaction in which Og replaces COg as the substrate added to RuBP (Figure 22.29a). The ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate oxygenase rezLCtion diminishes plant... 

Write a balanced equation for the synthesis of a glucose molecule from ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate and COg that involves the first three reactions of the Calvin cycle and subsequent conversion of the two glyceraldehyde-3-P molecules into glucose. 

This enzyme interconverts ribulose-5-P and ribose-5-P via an enediol intermediate (Figure 23.30). The reaction (and mechanism) is quite similar to the phosphoglucoisomerase reaction of glycolysis, which interconverts glucose-6-P and fructose-6-P. The ribose-5-P produced in this reaction is utilized in the biosynthesis of coenzymes (including N/ DH, N/ DPH, F/ D, and Big), nucleotides, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA). The net reaction for the first four steps of the pentose phosphate pathway is... 

This reaction converts ribulose-5-P to another ketose, namely, xylulose-5-P. This reaction also proceeds by an enediol intermediate, but involves an inversion at C-3 (Figure 23.31). In the reaction, an acidic proton located a- to a carbonyl carbon is removed to generate the enediolate, but the proton is added back to the same carbon from the opposite side. Note the distinction in nomenclature here. Interchange of groups on a single carbon is an epimerization, and interchange of groups between carbons is referred to as an isomerization. 

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. 

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