Question

I Need help solving a mystery why is Vitamin B6 (pyridoxal 5'-phosphate) called PLP for shot. The head of the biochemistry department at my university doesn't even know why it is called PLP. I have been digging through old literature but I'm unable to find any information pertaining to why it is called PLP

Answer 1

In 1938, Samuel Lepkovsky isolated vitamin B6 from rice bran. Harris and Folkers in 1939 determined the structure of pyridoxine, and, in 1945, Snell was able to show that there are two forms of vitamin B6, pyridoxal and pyridoxamine. Vitamin B6 was named pyridoxine to indicate its structural homology to pyridine. All three forms of vitamin B6 are precursors of an activated compound known as pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP), which plays a vital role as the co-factor of a large number of essential enzymes in the human body.Several forms of the vitamin B6 are known, but pyridoxal phosphate (PLP) is the active form and is a cofactor in many reactions of amino acid metabolism, including transamination, deamination, and decarboxylation.

Answer 2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B6#History

Source if you want to read more.

Answer 3

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Vitamin-B6/129132647129066

Answer 4

@Aakash_Pandey, @kma230
, @blues

That doesn't answer the question why it is called PLP for short, Wikipedia doesn't say anything about why it is called PLP

How can 3 people not comprehend my question.

Answer 5

Furthermore, I have already the wikipedia source and surprise the answer isn't there, hence why it is a mystery.

Answer 6

@Australopithecus, my response merely included the reference @Aakash_Pandey omitted to include - specifically, where the answer was copied and pasted from. It was not intended to provide new insight to your question.

With respect to the PLP, I believe it stands for "Pyridoxal Levero-Phosphate."

Answer 7

Thanks Blues, for rescuing us. That would be my guess. The L stands for the fact that this pyridoxal 5Phosphate acts on L amino acids (not D amino acids)
http://www.zora.uzh.ch/1128/ Christen, P; Kasper, P; Gehring, H; Sterk, M (1996). Stereochemical constraint in the evolution of pyridoxal-5'-phosphate-dependent enzymes. A hypothesis. FEBS Letters, 389(1):12-14.

Answer 8

Thanks you people are awesome :)

Answer 9

@Preetha thanks for the link to the scientific journal it seems interesting :)

and thank you @blues it is funny how obvious the answer is :)

Answer 10

and I now see why you guys gave me the sources I should have been able to figure this out :)

Answer 11

Levero is the thing L most often stands for in organic chemistry. But I didn't figure out why until I looked at the link on the wiki and Preetha posted a better link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aromatic-L-amino-acid_decarboxylase

Why is it that the obvious ones are always the hardest to get? :P

Answer 12

@Preetha if pyridoxal 5 Phosphate acts on L amino acids and not D amino acids, why does D-transaminase utilize PLP as a cofactor. Sorry, I'm confused the journal you provided tends to put forth the point that these enzymes that utilize D-transaminase as a co-factor simply evolved around PLPs structure to maximize catalysis. Therefore, I think your conjecture that pyridoxal-5-pyrmidine acts only on L-amino acids is incorrect.

Thus, I postulate that the fact it is called PLP is because of limited knowledge of enzymes when it was discovered thus the Levero is archaic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-amino-acid_transaminase

Answer 13

Although, If I'm incorrect or missunderstanding something please correct me :)