Serine, decarboxylation

Elabbadi, N., Ancelin, M. L., and Vial, H. J. (1997). Phospholipid metabolism of serine in Plasmodium-infected erythrocytes involves phosphatidylserine and direct serine decarboxylation. Biochem. ]. 324(Pt 2), 435M45. 

The magnitude of the conversion of serine to ethanolamine appears to be quite high. This is extremely interesting in view of the fact that it has not been possible to demonstrate the presem e of an active serine decarboxylase in mammalian tissues. In the experiment of Stetten, 2.6% of the ethanolamine in the phosphatides of the liver of his animals was formed from the isotopic serine in eight days. Since the serine in the phosphatides showed a 6 % incorporation of the label, he reasoned that if the serine decarboxylated had the same isotopic concentration, the actual ethanolamine synthesized was 100(2.6/6.0), or 43% of the total phosphatide ethanolamine. This figure probably is high, as the dilution would not be expected to be complete throughout the decarboxylation process. 

A completely distinct enzyme has been found in a number of organisms, which carry out the metabolism of amino acids. In this group, a pyruvoyl group is covalently bound to the active enzyme that is produced from a proenzyme in a self-maturation process (Toms et al. 2004). The proenzyme contains a serine residue that undergoes rearrangement to an ester followed by conversion into the (3-chain of the enzyme and a dehydroalanine residne that forms the A-terminal pyruvoyl group of the a-chain. This type of enzyme has been fonnd for a number of important decarboxylations ... 

Two routes to phospholipid biosynthesis are known in either, the participation of CTP is necessary. The first route involves phosphatidic acid in phosphoglyceride biosynthesis. Phosphatidic acid reacts with CTP to yield CDP-diglyceride which, as a coenzyme, can participate in the transfer of diglyceride onto serine (or inositol) to produce phosphatidylserine (or phosphatidylinositol). Serine phosphatides are liable to decarboxylation (pyridoxal phosphate acting... 

Sphingolipids are biosynthesized by adding head groups to the ceramide moiety. Sphinganine, also termed dihy-drosphingosine, is biosynthesized by a decarboxylating condensation of serine with palmitoyl-CoA to form a keto intermediate, which is then reduced by NADPH (Fig. 3-9). 

Fig. 45 Stereoselective methoxylation of serine derivatives by anodic decarboxylation [223].

Figure 1. Synthetic pathway for PS and PE in mammalian cells. The major steps occuring in the synthesis and interconversion of PS and PE are shown. The PS synthases condense serine with a phosphatidyl moiety derived from PC and PE. The nascent PS can be converted to PE by decarboxylation. PE can also be formed by transfer of a phosphoethanolamine moiety from CDP-ethanolamine to diacylglycerol via the Kennedy pathway. The abbreviations used are PC, phosphatidylcholine PS, phosphatidylserine PE, phosphatidylethanolamine DG, diacylglycerol PSD, phosphatidylserine decarboxylase PSS, PS synthase.

Serine hydroxymethyl transferase catalyzes the decarboxylation reaction of a-amino-a-methylmalonic acid to give (J )-a-aminopropionic acid with retention of configuration [1]. The reaction of methylmalonyl-CoA catalyzed by malonyl-coenzyme A decarboxylase also proceeds with perfect retention of configuration, but the notation of the absolute configuration is reversed in accordance with the CIP-priority rule [2]. Of course, water is a good proton source and, if it comes in contact with these reactants, the product of decarboxylation should be a one-to-one mixture of the two enantiomers. Thus, the stereoselectivity of the reaction indicates that the reaction environment is highly hydro-phobic, so that no free water molecule attacks the intermediate. Even if some water molecules are present in the active site of the enzyme, they are entirely under the control of the enzyme. If this type of reaction can be realized using synthetic substrates, a new method will be developed for the preparation of optically active carboxylic acids that have a chiral center at the a-position. 

The enzymatic reaction was performed at 30 °C for 2 hours in a volume of 1 ml of 250 mM phosphate buffer (pH 6.5) containing 50 mM of KOH, 32 U/ml of the enzyme, and [1- C]-substrate. The product was isolated as the methyl ester. When the (S)-enantiomer was employed as the substrate, C remained completely in the product, as confirmed by C NMR and HRMS. In addition, spin-spin coupling between and was observed in the product, and the frequency of the C-O bond-stretching vibration was down-shifted to 1690 cm" (cf. 1740 cm for C-O). On the contrary, reaction of the (R)-enantiomer resulted in the formation of (R)-monoacid containing C only within natural abundance. These results clearly indicate that the pro-R carboxyl group of malonic acid is ehminated to form (R)-phenylpropionate with inversion of configuration [28]. This is in sharp contrast to the known decarboxylation reaction by malonyl CoA decarboxylase [1] and serine hydroxymethyl transferase [2], which proceeds with retention of configuration. 

The breaking of bond c is going to be less common than deprotonation or decarboxylation. In most amino acids, R is an alkyl group, so there is little chance of losing R as a cation. Indeed, the only occasions on which we can break bond c are when R is hydroxymethyl (as in serine) or a similar gronping... 

These pyridoxal-phosphate-dependent (or pyruvate-dependent) enzymes [EC 4.1.1.65] catalyze the decarboxylation of phosphatidyl-L-serine to produce phospha-tidylethanolamine and carbon dioxide. 

Non-pyridoxal Phosphate Dependent. Figure 2 depicts the postulated mechanism for a non-pyridoxal phosphate catal) zed decarboxylation of histidine to histamine involving a pyruvoyl residue instead of pyridoxal -5 - phosphate (20). Histidine decarboxylases from Lactobacillus 30a and a Micrococcus sp. have been shown to contain a covalently bound pyruvoyl residue on the active site. The pyruvoyl group is covalently bound to the amino group of a phenylalanine residue on the enzyme, and is derived from a serine residue (21) of an inactive proenzyme (22). The pyruvoyl residue acts in a manner similar to pyridoxal phosphate in the decarboxylation reaction. 

Pyridoxal phosphate is the coenzyme for the enzymic processes of transamination, racemization and decarboxylation of amino-acids, and for several other processes, such as the dehydration of serine and the synthesis of tryptophan that involve amino-acids (Braunstein, 1960). Pyridoxal itself is one of the three active forms of vitamin B6 (Rosenberg, 1945), and its biochemistry was established by 1939, in considerable part by the work of A. E. Braunstein and coworkers in Moscow (Braunstein and Kritzmann, 1947a,b,c Konikova et al 1947). Further, the requirement for the coenzyme by many of the enzymes of amino-acid metabolism had been confirmed by 1945. In addition, at that time, E. E. Snell demonstrated a model reaction (1) for transamination between pyridoxal [1] and glutamic acid, work which certainly carried with it the implication of mechanism (Snell, 1945). 

Cultures of Streptomyces rimosus var paromomycinus characteristically develop UV absorption at 240 and 278 nm due to formation of malonomicin (22), a compound that shows antiprotozoal activity towards Trypanosoma congolense, the causative agent of sleping sickness in cattle [42]. Malonomicin contains an unique aminomalonic acid unit that, on brief heating in water, undergoes decarboxylation and results in a compound devoid of biological activity [43]. Hydrolysis of the compound yielded L-serine and racemic aspartic acid. The structure was elucidated by chemical and spectroscopic methods [43,44] and was confirmed by total synthesis [45]. 

Phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylglycerol can serve as precursors of other membrane lipids in bacteria (Fig. 21-25). Decarboxylation of the serine moiety in phosphatidylserine, catalyzed by phosphatidylserine decarboxylase, yields phosphatidylethanolamine. In E. coli, condensation of two molecules of phosphatidylglycerol, with elimination of one glycerol, yields... 

In bacteria, phosphatidylserine is formed by the condensation of serine with CDP-diacylglycerol decarboxylation of phosphatidylserine produces phosphatidylethanolamine. Phosphatidylglycerol is formed by condensation of CDP-diacylglycerol with glycerol 3-phosphate, followed by removal of the phosphate in monoester linkage. 

In the synthesis of fatty acids the acetyl irnits are condensed and then are reduced to form straight hydrocarbon chains. In the oxo-acid chain elongation mechanism, the acetyl unit is introduced but is later decarboxylated. Tlius, the chain is increased in length by one carbon atom at a time. These two mechanisms account for a great deal of the biosynthesis by chain extension. However, there are other variations. For example, glycine (a carboxylated methylamine), under the influence of pyridoxal phosphate and with accompanying decarboxylation, condenses with succinyl-CoA (Eq. 14-32) to extend the carbon chain and at the same time to introduce an amino group. Likewise, serine (a carboxylated ethanolamine) condenses with... 

The formation of phosphatidylserine and possibly other phospholipids in animal tissues may also be accomplished by exchange reactions (Eq. 21-10, step a). 82 83 At the same time, decarboxylation of phosphatidylserine back to phosphatidylethanolamine (Eq. 21-10, step b) also takes place, the net effect being a catalytic cycle for decarboxylation of serine to ethano-lamine. The latter can react with CTP to initiate synthesis of new phospholipid molecules or can be converted to phosphatidylcholine (step c). However, unless there is an excess of methionine and folate in the diet, choline is an essential human nutrient.184... 

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