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Enzyme Cofactor (enzyme + cofactor)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Life Sciences75%

Selected Abstracts

Mycothiol-dependent proteins in actinomycetes

FEMS MICROBIOLOGY REVIEWS, Issue 3 2007
Mamta Rawat
Abstract The pseudodisaccharide mycothiol is present in millimolar levels as the dominant thiol in most species of Actinomycetales. The primary role of mycothiol is to maintain the intracellular redox homeostasis. As such, it acts as an electron acceptor/donor and serves as a cofactor in detoxification reactions for alkylating agents, free radicals and xenobiotics. In addition, like glutathione, mycothiol may be involved in catabolic processes with an essential role for growth on recalcitrant chemicals such as aromatic compounds. Following a little over a decade of research since the discovery of mycothiol in 1994, we summarize the current knowledge about the role of mycothiol as an enzyme cofactor and consider possible mycothiol-dependent enzymes. [source]

Pyrroloquinoline quinone-dependent carbohydrate dehydrogenase: Activity enhancement and the role of artificial electron acceptors

BIOTECHNOLOGY JOURNAL, Issue 8 2010
Juozas Kulys Professor
Abstract Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ)-dependent glucose dehydrogenase (PQQ-GDH) offers a variety of opportunities for applications, e.g. in highly sensitive biosensors and electrosynthetic reactions. Here we report on the acceleration (up to 4.9 x 104 -fold) of enzymatic ferricyanide reduction by artificial redox mediators (enhancers). The reaction mechanism includes reduction of the PQQ-GDH by glucose followed by oxidation of the reduced PQQ cofactor with either ferricyanide or a redox mediator. A synergistic effect occurs through the oxidation of a reduced mediator by ferricyanide. Using kinetic description of the coupled reaction, the second order rate constant for the reaction of an oxidized mediator with the reduced enzyme cofactor (kox) can be calculated. For different mediators this value is 2.2 x 106,1.6 x 108 M -1s -1 at pH 7.2 and 25°C. However, no correlation of the rate constant with the midpoint redox potential of the mediator could be established. For low-potential mediators the synergistic effect is proportional to the ratio of kox(med)/kox(ferricyanide), whereas for the high-potential mediators the effect depends on both this ratio and the concentration of the oxidized mediator, which can be calculated from the Nernst equation. The described effect can be applied in various ways, e.g. for substrate reactivity determination, electrosynthetic PQQ cofactor regeneration or building of new highly sensitive biosensors. [source]

Structure,function studies of glutamate synthases: A class of self-regulated iron-sulfur flavoenzymes essential for nitrogen assimilation

IUBMB LIFE, Issue 5 2008
Maria Antonietta Vanoni
Abstract Glutamate synthases play with glutamine synthetase an essential role in nitrogen assimilation processes in microorganisms, plants, and lower animals by catalyzing the net synthesis of one molecule of L -glutamate from L -glutamine and 2-oxoglutarate. They exhibit a modular architecture with a common subunit or region, which is responsible for the L -glutamine-dependent glutamate synthesis from 2-oxoglutarate. Here, a PurF- (Type II- or Ntn-) type amidotransferase domain is coupled to the synthase domain, a (,/,)8 barrel containing FMN and one [3Fe-4S]0,+1 cluster, through a ,30 Å-long intramolecular tunnel for the transfer of ammonia between the sites. In bacterial and eukaryotic GltS, reducing equivalents are provided by reduced pyridine nucleotides thanks to the stable association with a second subunit or region, which acts as a FAD-dependent NAD(P)H oxidoreductase and is responsible for the formation of the two low potential [4Fe-4S]+1,+2 clusters of the enzyme. In photosynthetic cells, reduced ferredoxin is the physiological reductant. This review focus on the mechanism of cross-activation of the synthase and glutaminase reactions in response to the bound substrates and the redox state of the enzyme cofactors, as well as on recent information on the structure of the ,, protomer of the NADPH-dependent enzyme, which sheds light on the intramolecular electron transfer pathway between the flavin cofactors. © 2008 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 60(5): 287,300, 2008 [source]

Adenosyl Radical: Reagent and Catalyst in Enzyme Reactions

CHEMBIOCHEM, Issue 5 2010
E. Neil G. Marsh Prof.
Abstract Adenosine is undoubtedly an ancient biological molecule that is a component of many enzyme cofactors: ATP, FADH, NAD(P)H, and coenzyme A, to name but a few, and, of course, of RNA. Here we present an overview of the role of adenosine in its most reactive form: as an organic radical formed either by homolytic cleavage of adenosylcobalamin (coenzyme B12, AdoCbl) or by single-electron reduction of S -adenosylmethionine (AdoMet) complexed to an iron,sulfur cluster. Although many of the enzymes we discuss are newly discovered, adenosine's role as a radical cofactor most likely arose very early in evolution, before the advent of photosynthesis and the production of molecular oxygen, which rapidly inactivates many radical enzymes. AdoCbl-dependent enzymes appear to be confined to a rather narrow repertoire of rearrangement reactions involving 1,2-hydrogen atom migrations; nevertheless, mechanistic insights gained from studying these enzymes have proved extremely valuable in understanding how enzymes generate and control highly reactive free radical intermediates. In contrast, there has been a recent explosion in the number of radical-AdoMet enzymes discovered that catalyze a remarkably wide range of chemically challenging reactions; here there is much still to learn about their mechanisms. Although all the radical-AdoMet enzymes so far characterized come from anaerobically growing microbes and are very oxygen sensitive, there is tantalizing evidence that some of these enzymes might be active in aerobic organisms including humans. [source]