The metabolism of leucine to isoamyl alcohol in yeast was examined by 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The product of leucine transamination, α-ketoisocaproate had four potential routes to isoamyl alcohol. The first, via branched-chain α-keto acid dehydrogenase to isovaleryl-CoA with subsequent conversion to isovalerate by acyl-CoA hydrolose operates in wild-type cells where isovalerate appears to be an end product. This pathway is not required for the synthesis of isoamyl alcohol because abolition of branched-chain α-keto acid dahydrogenase activity in an lpd1 disruption mutant did not prevent the formation of isoamyl alcohol. A second possible route was via pyruvate decarboxylase; however, elimination of pyruvate decarboxylase activity in a pdc1 pdc5 pdc6 triple mutant did not decrease the levels of isoamyl alcohol produced. A third route utilizes α- ketoisocaproate reductase (a novel activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae) but with no role in the formation of isoamyl alcohol from α-hydroxyisocaproate because cell homogenates could not convert α-hydroxyisocaproate to isoamyl alcohol. The final possibility was that a pyruvate decarhoxylase-like enzyme encoded by YDL080c appears to be the major route of decarboxylation of α- ketoisocaproate to isoamyl alcohol although disruption of this gene reveals that at least one other unidentified decarboxylase can substitute to a minor extent.
CITATION STYLE
Dickinson, J. R., Lanterman, M. M., Danner, D. J., Pearson, B. M., Sanz, P., Harrison, S. J., & Hewlins, M. J. E. (1997). A 13C nuclear magnetic resonance investigation of the metabolism of leucine to isoamyl alcohol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 272(43), 26871–26878. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.272.43.26871
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