Magnitude of the equilibrium isotope effect on carbon-tritium bond synthesis.

The exchange of tritium from 3HOH into the methyl group of pyruvate catalyzed by 6-phospho-2-keto-3-deoxygluconate aldolase (6-phospho-2-keto-3-deoxy-D-gluconate D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-lyase, EC 4.1.2.14) of Pseudomonas putida shows an equilibrium isotope effect of 0.78. From this value and the deuterium effect on the fumarase equilibrium (Thomson, J.F. (1960) Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 90, 1), one can calculate by use of the relative fractionation factors of Hartshorn and Shiner (Hartshorn, S.R. and Shiner, Jr., V.J. (1972) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 94, 9002), fractionation factors for transfer of deuterium or tritium from water to a number of organic molecules of interest.