Study of 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate reductoisomerase: synthesis and evaluation of fluorinated substrate analogues.

[reaction: see text] 1-deoxy-D-xylulose-5-phosphate (DXP) reductoisomerase is a NADPH-dependent enzyme catalyzing the conversion of DXP to methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP). In this study, each of the hydroxyl groups in DXP and one of its C-1 hydrogen atoms, were separately replaced with a fluorine atom and the effect of the substitution on the catalytic turnover was examined. It was found that the 1-fluoro-DXP is a poor substrate, while both 3- and 4-fluoro-DXP behave as noncompetitive inhibitors.