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Query: EC:1.7.1.4 (nitrite reductase)
1,847 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Cytochrome cd1 nitrite reductase catalyses the conversion of nitrite to nitric oxide in the nitrogen cycle. The crystal structure of the oxidized enzyme shows that the d1 haem iron of the active site is ligated by His/Tyr side chains, and the c haem iron is ligated by a His/His ligand pair. Here we show that both haems undergo re-ligation during catalysis. Upon reduction, the tyrosine ligand of the d1 haem is released to allow substrate binding. Concomitantly, a refolding of the cytochrome c domain takes place, resulting in an unexpected change of the c haem iron coordination from His 17/His 69 to Met106/His69. This step is similar to the last steps in the folding of cytochrome c. The changes must affect the redox potential of the haems, and suggest a mechanism by which internal electron transfer is regulated. Structures of reaction intermediates show how nitric oxide is formed and expelled from the active-site iron, as well as how both haems return to their starting coordination. These results show how redox energy can be switched into conformational energy within a haem protein.
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PMID:Haem-ligand switching during catalysis in crystals of a nitrogen-cycle enzyme. 931 86

Nitrate is a significant nitrogen source for plants and microorganisms. Recent molecular genetic analyses of representative bacterial species have revealed structural and regulatory genes responsible for the nitrate-assimilation phenotype. Together with results from physiological and biochemical studies, this information has unveiled fundamental aspects of bacterial nitrate assimilation and provides the foundation for further investigations. Well-studied genera are: the cyanobacteria, including the unicellular Synechococcus and the filamentous Anabaena; the gamma-proteobacteria Klebsiella and Azotobacter; and a Gram-positive bacterium, Bacillus. Nitrate uptake in most of these groups seems to involve a periplasmic binding protein-dependent system that presumably is energized by ATP hydrolysis (ATP-binding cassette transporters). However, Bacillus may, like fungi and plants, utilize electrogenic uptake through a representative of the major facilitator superfamily of transport proteins. Nitrate reductase contains both molybdenum cofactor and an iron-sulfur cluster. Electron donors for the enzymes from cyanobacteria and Azotobacter are ferredoxin and flavodoxin, respectively, whereas the Klebsiella and Bacillus enzymes apparently accept electrons from a specific NAD(P)H-reducing subunit. These subunits share sequence similarity with the reductase components of bacterial aromatic ring-hydroxylating dehydrogenases such as toluene dioxygenase. Nitrite reductase contains sirohaem and an iron-sulfur cluster. The enzymes from cyanobacteria and plants use ferredoxin as the electron donor, whereas the larger enzymes from other bacteria and fungi contain FAD and NAD(P)H binding sites. Nevertheless, the two forms of nitrite reductase share recognizable sequence and structural similarity. Synthesis of nitrate assimilation enzymes and uptake systems is controlled by nitrogen limitation in all bacteria examined, but the relevant regulatory proteins exhibit considerable structural and mechanistic diversity in different bacterial groups. A second level of control, pathway-specific induction by nitrate and nitrite in Klebsiella, involves transcription antitermination. Several issues await further experimentation, including the mechanism and energetics of nitrate uptake, the pathway(s) for nitrite uptake, the nature of electron flow during nitrate reduction, and the action of transcriptional regulatory circuits. Fundamental knowledge of nitrate assimilation physiology should also enhance the study of nitrate metabolism in soil, water and other natural environments, a challenging topic of considerable interest and importance.
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PMID:Nitrate assimilation by bacteria. 932 45

Some sulfate reducing bacteria can induce nitrate reductase when grown on nitrate containing media being involved in dissimilatory reduction of nitrate, an important step of the nitrogen cycle. Previously, it was reported the purification of the first soluble nitrate reductase from a sulfate-reducing bacteria Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 (S.A. Bursakov, M.-Y. Liu, W.J. Payne, J. LeGall, I. Moura, and J.J.G. Moura (1995) Anaerobe 1, 55-60). The present work provides further information about this monomeric periplasmic nitrate reductase (Dd NAP). It has a molecular mass of 74 kDa, 18.6 U specific activity, KM (nitrate) = 32 microM and a pHopt in the range 8-9.5. Dd NAP has peculiar properties relatively to ionic strength and cation/anion activity responses. It is shown that monovalent cations (potassium and sodium) stimulate NAP activity and divalent (magnesium and calcium) inhibited it. Sulfate anion also acts as an activator in KPB buffer. NAP native form is protected by phosphate anion from cyanide inactivation. In the presence of phosphate, cyanide even stimulates NAP activity (up to 15 mM). This effect was used in the purification procedure to differentiate between nitrate and nitrite reductase activities, since the later is effectively blocked by cyanide. Ferricyanide has an inhibitory effect at concentrations higher than 1 mM. The N-terminal amino acid sequence has a cysteine motive C-X2-C-X3-C that is most probably involved in the coordination of the [4Fe-4S] center detected by EPR spectroscopy. The active site of the enzyme consists in a molybdopterin, which is capable for the activation of apo-nit-1 nitrate reductase of Neurospora crassa. The oxidized product of the pterin cofactor obtained by acidic hidrolysis of native NAP with sulfuric acid was identified by HPLC chromatography and characterized as a molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide (MGD).
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PMID:Enzymatic properties and effect of ionic strength on periplasmic nitrate reductase (NAP) from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774. 936 52

We examined alpha, beta and gamma Proteobacteria with Cu and heme-type dissimilatory nitrite reductases for patterns of nir regulation. Six of seven strains expressed nitrite reductase under aerobic growth conditions. In only one strain, G-179, was it stringently regulated by O2. Growth with NO-3 or NO-2 enhanced nitrite reductase production in four of seven strains under anaerobic growth conditions, but in only one strain, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01, under aerobic conditions. In this strain the nitrite reductase production was primarily regulated by an anr gene when grown under anaerobic conditions, but when grown under aerobic conditions it was regulated by both an anr gene and nitrogen oxide. Constitutive production of nitrite reductase was a common phenomenon rather than the exception among denitrifiers from the environment, which helps explain the prevalence of denitrifying enzymes in aerobic soils.
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PMID:Diversity of oxygen and N-oxide regulation of nitrite reductases in denitrifying bacteria. 936 61

By its inability to grow on sulfate as the sole sulfur source, a mutant strain (CTNUX8) of Rhizobium etli carrying Tn5 was isolated and characterized. Sequence analysis showed that Tn5 is inserted into a cysG (siroheme synthetase)-homologous gene. By RNase protection assays, it was established that the cysG-like gene had a basal level of expression in thiosulfate- or cysteine-grown cells, which was induced when sulfate or methionine was used. Unlike its wild-type parent (strain CE3), the mutant strain, CTNUX8, was also unable to grow on nitrate as the sole nitrogen source and was unable to induce a high level of nitrite reductase. Despite its pleiotropic phenotype, strain CTNUX8 was able to induce pink, effective (N2-fixing) nodules on the roots of Phaseolus vulgaris plants. However, mixed inoculation experiments showed that strain CTNUX8 is significantly different from the wild type in its ability to nodulate. Our data support the notion that sulfate (or sulfite) is the sulfur source of R. etli in the rhizosphere, while cysteine, methionine, or glutathione is supplied by the root cells to bacteria growing inside the plant.
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PMID:A cysG mutant strain of Rhizobium etli pleiotropically defective in sulfate and nitrate assimilation. 939 98

Q-band ENDOR elucidated proton and nitrogen hyperfine features to provide spin density information at ligands of blue-green Type 1 and catalytic Type 2 copper centers in nitrite reductase. The blue-green Type 1 center of nitrite reductase has a redox, electron-transfer role, and compared to the blue center of plastocyanin, it has the following structural differences: a shortened Cu-Smet bond length, a longer Cu-Scys bond length, and altered ligand-copper-ligand bond angles (Adman, E. T., Godden, J. W., and Turley, S. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 27458-27474). The hyperfine couplings of the two Type 1 histidine (N delta) ligands showed a larger percentage difference from each other in electron spin density than previously reported for other blue Type 1 proteins, while the cysteine beta-proton hyperfine couplings, a measure of unpaired p pi spin density on the liganding cysteine sulfur, showed a smaller electron spin density. A mutation of the Type 1 center, M182T, having the copper-liganding Met182 transformed to Thr182, caused the center to revert to an optically "blue" center, raised its redox potential by approximately 100 mV, and led to the loss of activity (prior paper). Surprisingly, in M182T there was no change from native Type 1 copper either in the histidine or cysteine hyperfine couplings or in g values and Cu nuclear hyperfine couplings. The conclusion is that the optical and redox alterations due to changed Type 1 methionine ligation need not be concurrent with electron spin delocalization changes in the HOMO as reported from its essential cysteine and histidines. A detailed picture of the nitrogen couplings from the three histidine (N epsilon) ligands of the Type 2 center indicated a substantial ( approximately 200%) electronic hyperfine inequivalence of one of the histidine nitrogens from the other two within the Type 2 HOMO and thus provided evidence for electronic distortion of the Type 2 site. In the presence of the nitrite substrate, hyperfine couplings of all histidines diminished. We suggest that this nitrite-induced decreased covalency would correlate with an increased Type 2 redox potential to assist electron transfer to the Type 2 center. Dipole-coupled, angle-selected exchangeable proton features, observed over a range of g values, predicted a ligand-water proton distance of 2.80 A from copper, and these water protons were eliminated by nitrite. His287 is not a Type 2 ligand but is positioned to perturb an axial water or a nitrite of Type 2 copper. In the presence of nitrite the mutant H287E showed no evidence for the loss of water protons and no diminished ligand histidine covalency. H287E has vastly diminished activity (prior paper), and the ENDOR information is that NO2- does not bind to Type 2 copper of H287E. In summary, the electronic information from this study of native and suitably chosen mutants provided a test of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) wave function at Type 1 and Type 2 coppers and an intimate electronic insight into functional enzymatic properties.
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PMID:Electronic structural information from Q-band ENDOR on the type 1 and type 2 copper liganding environment in wild-type and mutant forms of copper-containing nitrite reductase. 955 48

Denitrification is one of the main steps of the global nitrogen cycle that is sustained by prokaryotic organisms. Denitrifying bacteria use two entirely different enzymes in this process, one based on haem cd1 prosthetic groups and the other on type 1-type 2 Cu centres. Copper-containing nitrite reductases (NiRs) are sub-divided into blue and green NiRs, which are respectively thought to be redox partners of azurins and pseudo-azurins. Crystallographic structures of the blue nitrite reductase from Alcaligenes xylosoxidans (AxNiR) are presented in the oxidised hexagonal form and the substrate-bound orthorhombic form to 2.1 A and 2.8 A resolution, respectively. The complete amino acid sequence of AxNiR has been determined by conventional chemical analysis. A 3 A structure of AxNiR has been published where the modelling was based on the sequence of another blue NiR. The higher resolution of the hexagonal form together with the correct sequence allows a detailed comparison with the crystallographic structures of the green NiRs. There is a striking difference in the overall surface charge distribution between the two sub-groups, providing a neat structural explanation for their different reactivities to pseudoazurin or azurin and supporting the view that electron transfer proceeds via complex formation. A detailed examination of the type-1 Cu site, the site responsible for the colour, reveals several subtle differences, including a lateral displacement of 0.7 A for Smet. The structure of the type-2 Cu site, and changes that occur upon substrate binding are discussed in terms of the catalytic mechanism. The similarity of the type 2 Cu site to the catalytic Zn site in carbonic anhydrase and the catalytic Cu site of superoxide dismutase is re-examined in view of the high-resolution (2.1 A) structure.
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PMID:X-ray structure of a blue-copper nitrite reductase in two crystal forms. The nature of the copper sites, mode of substrate binding and recognition by redox partner. 973 94

Two new loci have been found to be clustered with five other genes for the nitrate assimilation pathway in the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii genome. One gene, located close to the 3'-end of the high-affinity nitrate transporter (HANT) gene Nrt 2; 2, corresponds to the nitrite reductase (NiR) structural gene Nii1. This is supported by a number of experimental findings: (i) NiR-deficient mutants have lost Nii1 gene expression; (ii) Nii1 mRNA accumulation is co-regulated with the expression of other structural genes of the nitrate assimilation pathway; (iii) nitrite (nitrate) utilization ability is recovered in the NiR mutants by functional complementation with a wild-type Nii1 gene; (iv) the elucidated NII1 amino acid sequence is highly similar to that of the cyanobacterial and higher-plant enzyme, and contains the predicted domains for plastidic ferredoxin-NiRs. Thus, the mutant phenotype and the mRNA sequence and expression of the Nii1 gene have been unequivocally related. Accumulation of mRNA for the second locus identified. Lde1 (light-dependent expression), was not regulated by nitrogen, but like nitrate-assimilation clustered genes, its expression was down-regulated in the dark.
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PMID:Clustering of the nitrite reductase gene and a light-regulated gene with nitrate assimilation loci in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. 973 4

The nitrate and nitrite reductases of Bacillus subtilis have two different physiological functions. Under conditions of nitrogen limitation, these enzymes catalyze the reduction of nitrate via nitrite to ammonia for the anabolic incorporation of nitrogen into biomolecules. They also function catabolically in anaerobic respiration, which involves the use of nitrate and nitrite as terminal electron acceptors. Two distinct nitrate reductases, encoded by narGHI and nasBC, function in anabolic and catabolic nitrogen metabolism, respectively. However, as reported herein, a single NADH-dependent, soluble nitrite reductase encoded by the nasDE genes is required for both catabolic and anabolic processes. The nasDE genes, together with nasBC (encoding assimilatory nitrate reductase) and nasF (required for nitrite reductase siroheme cofactor formation), constitute the nas operon. Data presented show that transcription of nasDEF is driven not only by the previously characterized nas operon promoter but also from an internal promoter residing between the nasC and nasD genes. Transcription from both promoters is activated by nitrogen limitation during aerobic growth by the nitrogen regulator, TnrA. However, under conditions of oxygen limitation, nasDEF expression and nitrite reductase activity were significantly induced. Anaerobic induction of nasDEF required the ResDE two-component regulatory system and the presence of nitrite, indicating partial coregulation of NasDEF with the respiratory nitrate reductase NarGHI during nitrate respiration.
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PMID:Nitrogen and oxygen regulation of Bacillus subtilis nasDEF encoding NADH-dependent nitrite reductase by TnrA and ResDE. 976 65

The genes encoding the nitrate transporter (YNT1), nitrite reductase (YNI1) and nitrate reductase (YNR1) are clustered in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha. In addition, DNA sequencing of the region containing these genes demonstrated that a new open reading frame called YNA1 (yeast nitrate assimilation) was located between YNR1 and YNI1. The YNA1 gene encodes a protein of 529 residues belonging to the family of Zn(II)2Cys6 fungal transcriptional factors, and has the highest similarity to the transcriptional factors encoded by nirA, and to a smaller extent to nit-4, involved in the nitrate induction of the gene involved in the assimilation of this compound in filamentous fungi. Northern blot analysis showed the presence of the YNA1 transcript in cells incubated in nitrate, nitrate plus ammonium, ammonium, and nitrogen-free media, with a decrease in its levels in those cells incubated in ammonium. In nitrate the strain Deltayna1::URA3, with a disrupted YNA1 gene, neither grew nor expressed the genes YNT1, YNI1 and YNR1. In the gene cluster YNT1-YNI1-YNA1-YNR1, the four genes were transcribed independently in the YNT1-->YNR1 direction and the transcription start sites were determined by primer extension.
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PMID:Clustering of the YNA1 gene encoding a Zn(II)2Cys6 transcriptional factor in the yeast Hansenula polymorpha with the nitrate assimilation genes YNT1, YNI1 and YNR1, and its involvement in their transcriptional activation. 979 7


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