Theoretical study on keto–enol tautomerisation of glutarimide for exploration of the isomerisation reaction pathway of glutamic acid in proteins using density functional theory

Abstract

<p>In order to elucidate the reason why glutamic acid residues have lesser racemisation reactivity than asparaginic acid, we investigated the racemisation energy barrier of piperidinedione, which is the presumed intermediate of the isomerisation reaction of L-Glu to D-Glu, by density functional theory calculations. In two-water-molecule-assisted racemisation, the activation barrier for keto–enol isomerisation was 28.1 kcal/mol. The result showed that the activation barrier for the racemisation of glutamic acid residues was not different from that for the racemisation of aspartic acid residues. Thus, glutamic acid residues can possibly cause the racemisation reaction if the cyclic intermediate stably exists.</p