Histidine is an important catalytic residue found at the active sites of many enzymes. In many cases, histidine appears to remove protons or to transfer protons from one location to another.
(a) Show which nitrogen atom of the histidine heterocycle is basic and which is not.
(b) Use resonance forms to show why the protonated form of histidine is a particularly stable cation.
(c) Show the structure that results when histidine accepts a proton on the basic nitrogen of the heterocycle and then is deprotonated on the other heterocyclic nitrogen. Explain how histidine might function as a pipeline to transfer protons between sites within an enzyme and its substrate.