Tetrapyrrole compounds


Tetrapyrrole compounds

This basic compound is known as porphin.

Tetrapyrrole | chemical compound | caninariojana.com

Porphyrins have complex cyclic structures. All porphyrin compounds absorb light intensely at or close to nanometres. The iron atom is kept in the centre of the porphyrin ring by interaction with the four nitrogen atoms. The iron atom can combine with two other substituents; in oxyhemoglobin, one substituent is a histidine of the protein carrier, and the other is an oxygen molecule.

In some heme proteins, the protein is also bound covalently to Tetrapyrrole compounds side chains of porphyrin.

Tetrapyrrole compounds


Large amounts of biliproteins, the molecular weights of which are about , have been found in red and blue-green algae; the red protein is called phycoerythrin, the blue one phycocyanobilin.

Phycocyanobilin consists of eight subunits with a molecular weight of 28, each; about 89 percent of the molecule is protein with a large amount of carbohydrate.

Evidence indicates that, in various animals, certain porphyrins may be involved in activating hormones from the pituitary gland of the brain, including those concerned with the period of sexual heat in certain female animals. Porphyrins in the integument skin of some mollusks and cnidarians are regarded as being photosensitive receptors of light.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:Tetrapyrrole compounds, such as chlorophylls, hemes, and phycobilins, are synthesized in many enzymatic steps.

Coordination chemistry and design of chelators

For regulation of the tetrapyrrole metabolic pathway, it is generally considered that several speciﬁc isoforms catalyzing particular. A simplistic view of algal–bacterial evolution and their role in endosymbiosis events is portrayed in Fig.

caninariojana.comacterium was retained as primary plastid over time in three distinct evolutionary lineages — red algae, green algae and glaucophytes. Tables are provided to show the structures of the more commonly encountered compounds using the Fischer system for denoting isomers (the fifteen isomers of mesoporphyrin defined by Fischer, and some isomers of biliverdin).

Important dates in the history of lipids. The alchemist Brandt Hennig is credited to have prepared phosphorus (phosphoro mirabile), the first element isolated in a quite pure state The tetrapyrrole portions of the molecules typically act as chromophores because of a high degree of conjugation in them.

Therefore, these compounds are commonly colored. Therefore, these compounds are commonly colored. Coloration: Coloration, in biology, the general appearance of an organism as determined by the quality and quantity of light that is reflected or emitted from its surfaces.


Bacterial Photosynthesis