Enzymic synthesis of saccharopine-14C

✍ Scribed by Asru K. Sinha

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1971
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 230 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2697
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(71)90277-6

✦ Synopsis

Saccharopine (c-N-n-glutaryl-2)

-n-lysine is a precursor of lysine biosynthesis in yeast and other fungi through the a-aminoadipic acid pathway (1). In Saccharomyces, saccharopine is converted into lysine in the presence of NAD* at pH 10 or above. The reaction is catalyzed by the enzyme known as saccharopine dehydrogenase (EC 151.9).

Although the preparation of saccharopineJ4C from cY-aminoadipic acid-14C has been described (2), considerable difficulties are experienced in obtaining the compound in purified form. Preparation of saccharopine-14C from lysineJ4C has also been reported but without any experimental details (3). Recently Hutzler and Dancis reported the preparative synthesis of saccharopine (4).

In this paper, a relatively simple method is described for the preparation of saccharopine-14C from lysine-UL-l"C.

The method is based on the principle that saccharopine dehydrogenase at pH 7.0 converts lysine into saccharopine in the presence of cu-ketoglutarate and NADH (+H+) (1).