Leloir pathway

The Leloir pathway is a metabolic pathway for the catabolism of D-galactose. It is named after Luis Federico Leloir, who first described it.[1][2][3][4]

Steps in the Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism.
Intermediates and enzymes in the Leloir pathway of galactose metabolism[5]

In the first step, galactose mutarotase facilitates the conversion of β-D-galactose to α-D-galactose since this is the active form in the pathway. Next, α-D-galactose is phosphorylated by galactokinase to galactose 1-phosphate. In the third step, D-galactose-1-phosphate uridylyltransferase converts galactose 1-phosphate to UDP-galactose using UDP-glucose as the uridine diphosphate source. Finally, UDP-galactose 4-epimerase recycles the UDP-galactose to UDP-glucose for the transferase reaction. Additionally, phosphoglucomutase converts the D-glucose 1-phosphate to D-glucose 6-phosphate.[6]

  1. ^ Trucco, R.E.; Caputto, R; Leloir, L.F.; Mittelman, N (1948). "Galactokinase". Arch. Biochem. 18 (1): 137–146. PMID 18871223.
  2. ^ Caputto, R; Leloir, L.F.; Trucco, R.E.; Cardini, C.E.; Paladini, A C (1949). "The enzymatic transformation of galactose into glucose derivatives". J. Biol. Chem. 179 (1): 497–498. doi:10.1016/S0021-9258(18)56863-0. hdl:11336/135761. PMID 18119268.
  3. ^ Cardini, C. E.; Paladini, A. C.; Caputto, R.; Leloir, L. F. (1950). "Uridine Diphosphate Glucose: The Coenzyme of the Galactose–Glucose Phosphate Isomerization". Nature. 165 (4188): 191–192. Bibcode:1950Natur.165..191C. doi:10.1038/165191a0. hdl:11336/140707. S2CID 44975916.
  4. ^ Leloir, Luis F. (1951). "The enzymatic transformation of uridine diphosphate glucose into a galactose derivative". Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics. 33 (2): 186–190. doi:10.1016/0003-9861(51)90096-3. hdl:11336/140700. PMID 14885999.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Leloir was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Frey1996 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).