Something You Should Know About Acetylation

What Is Acetylation

Acetylation is the reaction of introducing acetyl CH3CO- into nitrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms in organic compound molecules, the most common is histone acetylation. Chloroacetyl and acetic anhydride are commonly used as acetylating agents. Acetylation refers to the process of transferring acetyl groups to amino acid side chain groups, the most common being histone acetylation. Acetylation is reversible. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are evolutionarily conserved enzymes. Human class I HDACs are homologous to the yeast Rpd3 enzyme. Class II HDACs are homologous to yeast Hda1 and can be classified into class IIa (HDAC4, 5, 7 and 9) and class IIb (HDAC6 and 10) according to their structures.

Functional Groups in Acetylation

Phenacetin functional groups serve as acetylation sites on the two hydroxyls of carbons 2 and 3. These functional groups are composed of a functional acylation site made up of an aromatic ring, amine group, and ester functional groups used for acetylation. The functional group opens the benzene ring into two ortho positions, allowing an acetoxy substitution through an ionic nucleophilic substitution mechanism.

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Acetylation in Different Chemical Reaction

• Acetylation is a process of functional group substitution

Acetylation is a process of functional group substitution with acetic anhydride. It can take place at position 2 or 3 on the phenacetin molecule. In both cases, the functional groups are replaced by CO2H as acetoxy functional group, which serves as a leaving group for nucleophilic attack from the oxygen atom in water to form carboxylic acid salts. The ratio at which these functional groups react depends on their relative stability constants and how much energy it takes to detach them from the carbon atoms they're bound to.

• Making Acetone

Acetone is a very cheap solvent, which makes it good for use in laboratories or industries. Acetone can be produced by acetic acid, but that process is extremely complicated. Acetic acid can be produced from petroleum and coal but this process also requires a lot of money. The production of acetone from coal produces carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as byproducts which are harmful to the environment. Acetone can also be extracted from wood pulp using acetylation, but because it is an inexpensive solvent, making it from petroleum is the best option for producing acetone in large quantities at low cost.

• Microcrystalline cellulose in Acetylation

Microcrystalline cellulose is an odorless, extremely fine white short rod porous particle, its particle size is generally 20-80μm (microcrystalline cellulose with a crystal particle size of 0.2-2μm is a colloidal grade), the limit degree of polymerization (LODP) between 15-375; not fibrous but extremely fluid; insoluble in water, dilute acid, organic solvent and grease, partially dissolved and swollen in dilute alkali solution. It has high reactivity in the process of carboxymethylation, acetylation and esterification. It is extremely beneficial to chemical modification and utilization.

• Paper production

Caustic soda is used in the process of paper production. In this process, raw materials are ground down into a slurry before being pressed and dried to make paper. The primary ingredient in the raw material is cellulose which must be broken down into sugars that can then be fermented into alcohol. Once the alcohol has been produced, it must be changed into acetic acid by acetylation. This important step will allow the alcohol to be turned into cellulose because this acid reacts with other chemicals to break the sugar chains further down further and produce pulp.

• Gene Senescence Theory

The main theory of gene senescence theory is that gene silencing is caused by promoter methylation and histone acetylation, thus accelerating the aging of the body. In terms of genetics, there are some specific "aging genes" or gene families that also affect the life span of organisms. At present, proliferation genes, aging genes and longevity genes have been found. In mature living organisms, the expression of aging genes plays a crucial role in the life span and aging process of organisms.