Biosynthesis of tuberin from tyrosine and glycine

Abstract

The N-formyl and O-methyl groups of tuberin (8) are labelled efficiently by [2-¹⁴C]glycine but the N-formyl group of (8) is not labelled by various other precursors notably [¹⁴C]formate and [Me-¹⁴C]methionine [the latter precursor labels the O-methyl group of (8) very efficiently]; L-tyrosine serves as a precursor for the remaining carbons in tuberin (8) but its incorporation is not completely intact, and DL-[2-¹⁴C]-threo-3-hydroxytyrosine (5) is incorporated into (8) apparently only via glycine.