Thioesters acetyl coenzyme

Thioesters are more reactive towards nucleophilic substitution than oxygen esters, and are widely employed in natural biochemical processes because of this property. Coenzyme A is a structurally complex thiol, and functions in the transfer of acetyl groups via its thioester acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA CH3CO-SC0A). 

The enzyme malate synthase also synthesises (S )-malic acid from glyoxylic acid (OHC-CO2H) and the thioester acetyl-coenzyme A (CH3CO.SC0A this may be regarded as a source of the nucleophile CH2CO.SC0A). 

This step is a thiol-carboxylic acid reaction to yield a thioester, acetyl coenzyme A. 

Thioesters and oxoesters are similar in their rates of nucleophilic acyl substitution, except with amine nucleophiles for which thioesters are much more reactive. Many biological reactions involve nucleophilic acyl substitutions referred to as acyl transfer reactions. The thioester acetyl coenzyme A is an acetyl group donor to alcohols, amines, and assorted other biological nucleophiles. 

The form in which acetate is used in most of its important biochemical reactions is the thioester acetyl coenzyme A (Figure 24.1a). Its formation from pyruvate involves several steps, all of which are catalyzed by enzymes. The overall process is summarized as ... 

In the second one, methyltetrahydrofolate (MeTHF) is carbonylated, the product being a thioester, acetyl coenzyme A (CoA being a thiol). This reaction resembles methanol carbonylation to acetic acid (Monsanto process, see Chap. 18) ... 

A condensation reaction between oxaloacetic acid, an Ct-ketoacid, and the thioester acetyl coenzyme A occurs in the citric acid cycle. As in the Claisen condensation of two acetyl CoA molecules, the first step is formation of a thioenolate ester. 

As we saw m Chapter 20 thioesters are more reactive than ordinary esters toward nucleophilic acyl substitution They also contain a greater proportion of enol at equilib rmm Both properties are apparent m the properties of acetyl coenzyme A In some reactions it is the carbonyl group of acetyl coenzyme A that reacts m others it is the a carbon atom... 

Chemists and biochemists And it convenient to divide the principal organic substances present m cells into four mam groups carbohydrates proteins nucleic acids and lipids Structural differences separate carbo hydrates from proteins and both of these are structurally distinct from nucleic acids Lipids on the other hand are characterized by a physical property their solubility m nonpolar solvents rather than by their structure In this chapter we have examined lipid molecules that share a common biosynthetic origin m that all their carbons are derived from acetic acid (acetate) The form m which acetate occurs m many of these processes is a thioester called acetyl coenzyme A... 

Figure 21.9 Formation of the thioester acetyl CoA by nucleophilic acyl substitution reaction of coenzyme A (CoA with acetyl adenylate.

Step 4 of Figure 29.12 Oxidative Decarboxylation The transformation of cr-ketoglutarate to succinyl CoA in step 4 is a multistep process just like the transformation of pyruvate to acetyl CoA that we saw in Figure 29.11. In both cases, an -keto acid loses C02 and is oxidized to a thioester in a series of steps catalyzed by a multienzynie dehydrogenase complex. As in the conversion of pyruvate to acetyl CoA, the reaction involves an initial nucleophilic addition reaction to a-ketoglutarate by thiamin diphosphate vlide, followed by decarboxylation, reaction with lipoamide, elimination of TPP vlide, and finally a transesterification of the dihydrolipoamide thioester with coenzyme A. 

This is a complex molecule, made up of an adenine nucleotide (ADP-3 -phosphate), pantothenic acid (vitamin B5), and cysteamine (2-mercaptoethylamine), but for mechanism purposes can be thought of as a simple thiol, HSCoA. Pre-eminent amongst the biochemical thioesters is the thioester of acetic acid, acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA). This compound plays a key role in the biosynthesis and metabolism of fatty acids (see Sections 15.4 and 15.5), as well as being a building block for the biosynthesis of a wide range of natural products, such as phenols and macrolide antibiotics (see Box 10.4). 

Very important compounds are the carboxylic acids and their derivatives, which can be formally obtained by exchanging the OH group for another group. In fact, derivatives of this type are formed by nucleophilic substitutions of activated intermediate compounds and the release of water (see p. 14). Carboxylic acid esters (R-O-CO-R ) arise from carboxylic acids and alcohols. This group includes the fats, for example (see p.48). Similarly, a carboxylic acid and a thiol yield a thioester (R-S-CO-R ). Thioesters play an extremely important role in carboxylic acid metabolism. The best-known compound of this type is acetyl-coenzyme A (see p. 12). 

Thioesters, in which a sulfur atom replaces the usual oxygen in the ester bond, also have large, negative, standard free energies of hydrolysis. Acetyl-coenzyme A, or acetyl-CoA (Fig. 13-6), is one of many thioesters important in metabolism. The acyl group in... 

RGURE 13-6 Hydrolysis of acetyl-coenzyme A Acetyl-CoA is a thioester with a large, negative, standard free energy of hydrolysis Thioesters contain a sulfur atom in the position occupied by an oxygen atom in oxygen esters. The complete structure of coenzyme A (CoA, or CoASH) is shown in Rgure 8-41. 

FIGURE 16-3 Coenzyme A (CoA). A hydroxyl group of pantothenic acid is joined to a modified ADP moiety by a phosphate ester bond, and its carboxyl group is attached to /3-mercaptoethylamine in amide linkage. The hydroxyl group at the 3 position of the ADP moiety has a phosphoryl group not present in free ADP. The —SH group of the mercaptoethylamine moiety forms a thioester with acetate in acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) (lower left). 

Steroids are members of a large class of lipid compounds called terpenes. Using acetate as a starting material, a variety of organisms produce terpenes by essentially Lire same biosynlheLic scheme (Fig. 3). The sell-condensation of two molecules of acetyl coenzyme A (CoA) forms acetoacetyl CoA. Condensation of acetoacetyl CoA with a third molecule of acetyl CoA, then followed by an NADPH-mediated reduction of the thioester moiety produces mevalonic acid (22). Phosphorylation of (22) followed by concomitant decarboxylation and dehydration processes... 

Ethanoic acid is activated for biosynthesis by combination with the thiol, coenzyme A (CoASH, Figure 18-7) to give the thioester, ethanoyl (acetyl) coenzyme A (CH3COSC0A). You may recall that the metabolic degradation of fats also involves this coenzyme (Section 18-8F) and it is tempting to assume that fatty acid biosynthesis is simply the reverse of fatty acid metabolism to CH3COSCoA. However, this is not quite the case. In fact, it is a general observation in biochemistry that primary metabolites are synthesized by different routes from those by which they are metabolized (for example, compare the pathways of carbon in photosynthesis and metabolism of carbohydrates, Sections 20-9,10). 

A number of biosynthetically important enzymes promote aldol related Claisen additions of acetyl thioesters of coenzyme A (CoA) to ketones, often to a-oxoacids. This includes the citrate synthase (EC 4.1.3.7) which is one of the key enzymes in central metabolism, and several others involved in the biosynthesis... 

Terpenes are composed of isoprenyl (C-,) units and are conveniently grouped as monoter-penes (skeletal basis CI0 = 2X C-,), sesquiterpenes (G13 = 3X C3), diterpenes (C20 = 4X C-,), triterpenes (C3o = 6X C-,) and tetraterpenes (C40 = 8X G-j. The structures of some representative terpenes are shown in the Appendix (Section 3). Terpenes ultimately derive biosynthetically from acetate (C2) via the activated acetyl thioester (CH3—CO—S—X) acetyl-coenzyme A (acetylCoA CH3-CO-S-C0A) as outlined below (enzymes catalysing key steps being indicated in parentheses). 

In cells, such acylations occur with the sulfur analogue of an ester, called a thioester, having the general structure RCOSR. The most common thioester is called acetyl coenzyme A, often referred to merely as acetyl CoA. 

Acetyl coenzyme A (Section 22.17) A biochemical thioester that acts as an acetylating reagent. Acetyl coenzyme A is often referred to as acetyl CoA. 

Vogel KW, Drueckhammer DG. A reversed thioester analogue of acetyl-coenzyme A An inhibitor of thiolase and a synthon for other acyl-CoA analogues. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998 120 3275-3283. 

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