S-Adenosylmethionine,

Some of the most common biological Sn2 reac tions involve attack at methyl groups especially a methyl group of S-adenosylmethionine Examples of these will be given in Chapter 16... 

A naturally occuning sulfonium salt, S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), is a key substance in certain biological processes. It is fonned by a nucleophilic substitution in which the sulfur atom of methionine attacks the primary car bon of adenosine triphosphate, displacing the triphosphate leaving group as shown in Figure 16.7. 

FIGURE 16.7 Nucleophilic substitution at the primary carbon of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by the sulfur atom of methionine yields S-adenosylmethionine (SAM). The reaction is catalyzed by an enzyme. 

The farnesylation and subsequent processing of the Ras protein. Following farnesylation by the FTase, the carboxy-terminal VLS peptide is removed by a prenyl protein-specific endoprotease (PPSEP) in the ER, and then a prenylprotein-specific methyltransferase (PPSMT) donates a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) to the carboxy-terminal S-farnesylated cysteine. Einally, palmitates are added to cysteine residues near the C-terminus of the protein. 

Phosphatidylethanolamine synthesis begins with phosphorylation of ethanol-amine to form phosphoethanolamine (Figure 25.19). The next reaction involves transfer of a cytidylyl group from CTP to form CDP-ethanolamine and pyrophosphate. As always, PP, hydrolysis drives this reaction forward. A specific phosphoethanolamine transferase then links phosphoethanolamine to the diacylglycerol backbone. Biosynthesis of phosphatidylcholine is entirely analogous because animals synthesize it directly. All of the choline utilized in this pathway must be acquired from the diet. Yeast, certain bacteria, and animal livers, however, can convert phosphatidylethanolamine to phosphatidylcholine by methylation reactions involving S-adenosylmethionine (see Chapter 26). 

Divalent sulfur compounds are achiral, but trivalent sulfur compounds called sulfonium stilts (R3S+) can be chiral. Like phosphines, sulfonium salts undergo relatively slow inversion, so chiral sulfonium salts are configurationally stable and can be isolated. The best known example is the coenzyme 5-adenosylmethionine, the so-called biological methyl donor, which is involved in many metabolic pathways as a source of CH3 groups. (The S" in the name S-adenosylmethionine stands for sulfur and means that the adeno-syl group is attached to the sulfur atom of methionine.) The molecule has S stereochemistry at sulfur ana is configurationally stable for several days at room temperature. Jts R enantiomer is also known but has no biological activity. 

The most common example of this process in living organisms is the reaction of the amino acid methionine with adenosine triphosphate (ATP Section 5.8) to give S-adenosylmethionine. The reaction is somewhat unusual in that the biological leaving group in this SN2 process is the triphosphate ion rather than the more frequently seen rliphosphate ion (Section 11.6). 

Adenosine triphosphate, coupled reactions and. 1128-1129 function of, 157, 1127-1128 reaction with glucose, 1129 structure of, 157, 1044 S-Adenosylmethionine, from methionine, 669 function of, 382-383 stereochemistry of, 315 structure of, 1045 Adipic acid, structure of, 753 ADP, sec Adenosine diphosphate Adrenaline, biosynthesis of, 382-383 molecular model of, 323 slructure of, 24... 

S-adenosylmethionine 406 biosynthesis of epoxide 349 bis(trimethylsilyl) peroxide (BTSP) 448, 450 bis(trimethylsilyl)urea 449 bis-oxepane ring 281... 

S-(5 -Deoxyadenosin-5 -yl)-L-methionine (AdoMet) S-[(1-Adenin-9-yl)-1,5-dideoxy-p-D-ribofuranos-5-yl]-L-methionine [trivial name S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)]... 

Figure 30-17. Formation of S-adenosylmethionine. -CHj represents the high group transfer potential of "active methionine."...

Posttranslational modification of preformed polynucleotides can generate additional bases such as pseudouridine, in which D-ribose is linked to C-5 of uracil by a carbon-to-carbon bond rather than by a P-N-glycosidic bond. The nucleotide pseudouridylic acid T arises by rearrangement of UMP of a preformed tRNA. Similarly, methylation by S-adenosylmethionine of a UMP of preformed tRNA forms TMP (thymidine monophosphate), which contains ribose rather than de-oxyribose. 

Despite our earlier failure in formate feeding experiments, [3- C]serine, [1,2- CJglycine, and [Me- C]methionine were found to enrich C-13 in neosaxitoxin effectively (7). The best incorporation was observed with methionine, indicating it is the direct precursor via S-adenosylmethionine. Glycine C-2 and serine C-3 must have been incorporated through tetrahydrofolate system as methyl donors in methionine biosynthesis. 

The possibility that synthesis of the HGA in tobacco membranes might be limited by the lack of methyl donor was ruled out since the addition of exogenous S-adenosylmethionine, a methyl donor known to function in the methylesterification of pectin (41,70), did not... 

S-adenosylmethionine carboxylase is the source of the propylamine in the polyamines spermine and spermidine. The activity of spermine synthase introduces this into spermidine and spermine, which has already been noted. It is worth pointing out that, whereas the inducible histidine decarboxylase... 

S-Adenosylmethionine carboxylase Sex-hormone binding globulin CYP 2D6 Falcipain 2 and 3 SARS CoV Chkl kinase Heme oxygenase... 

The ratio of peaks for peptides derived from 42 high abundance yeast proteins was examined for the wild type versus cln2 mutant strains (Oda et al., 1999). Only two of the proteins, a peroxisomal membrane protein and S-adenosylmethionine synthase 2, exhibited significant differences in expression between the strains. The biological significance of this observation is not yet known but the study does indicate that changes of >20% in expression levels can be detected using the technique (Oda et al., 1999). 

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