Publication Date:
2002-04-16
Description:
One of the most complex biosynthetic processes in metallobiochemistry is the assembly of nitrogenase, the key enzyme in biological nitrogen fixation. We describe here the crystal structure of an iron-molybdenum cofactor-deficient form of the nitrogenase MoFe protein, into which the cofactor is inserted in the final step of MoFe protein assembly. The MoFe protein folds as a heterotetramer containing two copies each of the homologous alpha and beta subunits. In this structure, one of the three alpha subunit domains exhibits a substantially changed conformation, whereas the rest of the protein remains essentially unchanged. A predominantly positively charged funnel is revealed; this funnel is of sufficient size to accommodate insertion of the negatively charged cofactor.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Schmid, Benedikt -- Ribbe, Markus W -- Einsle, Oliver -- Yoshida, Mika -- Thomas, Leonard M -- Dean, Dennis R -- Rees, Douglas C -- Burgess, Barbara K -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2002 Apr 12;296(5566):352-6.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Mail Code 147-75CH, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11951047" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Amino Acid Sequence
;
Azotobacter vinelandii/*enzymology
;
Binding Sites
;
Crystallization
;
Crystallography, X-Ray
;
Dimerization
;
Hydrogen Bonding
;
Models, Molecular
;
Molecular Sequence Data
;
Molybdoferredoxin/*chemistry/genetics/*metabolism
;
Protein Conformation
;
Protein Folding
;
Protein Structure, Quaternary
;
Protein Structure, Secondary
;
Protein Structure, Tertiary
;
Static Electricity
;
Surface Properties
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
