Since /-/3-hydroxybutyrate also forms a hydroxamic acid in the presence of ATP, CoA, Mg++ and hydroxylamine (cf. equation ( 2)) but causes little if any reduction of DPN (Table I) it would appear that reaction (3) is responsible for the optical specificity of the over-all scheme.The dehydrogenase catalyzing reaction (3), which has been found to be reversible, may be identical with that recently described by Lynen, et a/.9 In view of the present work it would appear probable that the /3-hydroxybutyryl-CoA participating in this reaction contains the ¿-isomer. Since reactions (3) and (4) are reversible, ¿-/3-hydroxybutyrate may be regarded as a "naturally occurring" metabolite in the form of its CoA derivative and may possibly be an intermediate in the enzymatic oxidation and synthesis of butyric acid.
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