Question

Thymidylate synthase To understand how fluorouracil works, let's first take a look at how a cancer cell divides. An enzyme called thymidylate synthase must convert deoxyuridinemonophosphate (dUMP) to deoxythymidinemonophosphate (dTMP). One of the steps in this multistep process is an elimination reaction, which is shown below. RIH Elimination 052- DNA Growth / Cancer Spreads made from DUMP Enzyme Identify the role of the nitrogen substituent shown in blue.

Answer 1

From the above reaction mechanism, it can be seen that, H+ is eliminated followed by a formation of double bond and the ammonium group is leaving resulting in C=C bond formation.

Hence, the nitrogen substituent is acting as a leaving group here.

Option C is right.