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Query: UMLS:C0016632 (Fox)
 1,461 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Elementary particle effects (beta-decay) provide at best only a weakly handed radiation in the biologically effective energy ranges. Global magnetic effects coupled to sunlight are randomized by paleomagnetic reversals. Hence a persistent terrestrial handed bias at possible local biopoetic sites offers a more promising explanation for the origin of the "handedness" of the molecules found among living systems on earth. Magnetite in lava flows maintains a handed bias for surface catalysis through many magnetic reversals. Magnetite contaminated with sulfur has already been proposed by Granick as a biopoetic site because it provides a weak source of chemical energy derived by photochemical conversion. Indirect evidence for this hypothesis has been provided by the molecular structure of ferredoxin - a single strand of the 14 primordial amino acids wrapped around an FeS core. Lava flows have been suggested as biopoetic sites by Fox, since their temperature and chemical composition might allow for the rapid synthesis of prebiotic compounds at the surface of the primitive earth. The additional fact that magnetite in lave flows also provides a persistent handed site for surface catalysis offers a further argument for the experimental investigation of this specific biopoetic environment.
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PMID:On the origin of molecular "handedness" in living systems. 120 34

Chloroplast fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase (FbPase) is an essential enzyme in the photosynthetic pathway of carbon dioxide fixation into sugars. The properties of the chloroplast enzyme are clearly distinct from those of cytosolic gluconeogenic FbPases. Light-dependent activation via a ferredoxin/thioredoxin system and insensitivity to inhibition by AMP are unique characteristics of the chloroplast enzyme. However, preliminary amino acid sequence data (78 residues) have demonstrated that a significant degree of amino acid sequence similarity exists between spinach chloroplast and mammalian gluconeogenic fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase [Harrsch, P.B., Kim, Y., Fox, J.L., & Marcus, F. (1985) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 133, 520-526]. In the present study, we have identified two structural features of spinach chloroplast FbPase that appear to be common to all FbPases. These include (a) the presence of a protease-sensitive area located in a region equivalent to residues 51-71 of mammalian FbPases and (b) the recognition of two conserved histidine residues, equivalent to histidines-253 and -311 of the mammalian enzymes. In addition, we have obtained sequence information accounting for more than three-fourths of the primary structure of spinach chloroplast FbPase. The high degree of homology observed between the chloroplast enzyme and gluconeogenic FbPases suggests a common evolutionary origin for all fructose-1,6-bisphosphatases in spite of their different functions and modes of regulation.
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PMID:Spinach chloroplast fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase: identification of the subtilisin-sensitive region and of conserved histidines. 282 42

These results demonstrate that two well-studied metalloenzymes, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase (CODH/ACS) and pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase (PFOR), can reduce protons to H2 and, at much lower rates, oxidize H2 to protons and electrons. To our knowledge, this if the first time that PFOR has been shown to have hydrogenase activity. CODH/ACS and PFOR evolved H2 at maximum rates when CO and pyruvate were the electron donors, respectively, and when electron acceptors are absent; dithionite was a very poor substitute. PFOR, when purified to greater than 99% homogeneity, exhibited a specific activity for pyruvate-dependent H2 production of 135 nmol min-1 mg-1. The H2 evolution activity divided by the H2 uptake activity was 282:1; the highest ratio previously reported (22:1) was with the membrane-bound hydrogenase from Rhodospirillum rubrum [Fox, J.D., Kerby, R. L., Roberts, G. P., & Ludden, P. W. (1996) J. Bacteriol. 178, 1515-1524]. Highly purified samples of CODH/ACS (> 99% homogeneity) exhibited a specific activity of CO-dependent H2 evolution in the absence of electron carrier of 590 nmol min-1 mg-1. Equivalent rates of CO oxidation and H2 production were observed when determined in the absence of electron acceptor. This level of activity can account for the rate of H2 production that has been observed by growing cultures of Clostridium thermoaceticum and could solve the paradox that the highly CO-sensitive hydrogenases from acetogenic bacteria evolve H2 when grown on CO. The ratio of the rates of (H2 evolution):(H2 uptake) for purified CODH/ACS is between 20:1 and 30:1. H2 evolution and uptake by CODH/ACS were strongly inhibited by cyanide (ki = 1 microM), indicating that these reactions are catalyzed by cluster C, the site of CO oxidation. Our results extend earlier findings that the CODHs from Methanosarcina barkeri [Bhatnagar, L., Krzycki, J. A., & Zeikus, J. G. (1987) FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 41, 337-343] and Oligotropha carboxydovorans [Santiago, B., & Meyer, O. (1996) FEMS Microbiol. Lett. 136, 157-162] exhibit hydrogenase activity. Mechanistic implications of hydrogenase activity are discussed. Several physiological roles for proton reduction by CODH/ACS and PFOR are discussed, including the prevention of radical formation from reduced metal clusters when electron carriers (ferredoxin, flavodoxin, etc.) are limiting.
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PMID:Unleashing hydrogenase activity in carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase and pyruvate:ferredoxin oxidoreductase. 896 45

T4MOC is a 12.3 kDa soluble Rieske ferredoxin that is obligately required for electron transfer between the oxidoreductase and diiron hydroxylase components of toluene 4-monooxygenase from Pseudomonas mendocina KR1. Our preliminary 1H NMR studies of oxidized and reduced T4MOC [Markley, J. L., Xia, B., Chae, Y. K., Cheng, H., Westler, W. M., Pikus, J. D., and Fox, B. G. (1996) in Protein Structure Function Relationships (Zaidi, Z., and Smith, D., Eds.) pp 135-146, Plenum Press, London] revealed the presence of hyperfine-shifted 1H resonances whose short relaxation times made it impractical to use nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE) measurements for assignment purposes. We report here the use of selective isotopic labeling to analyze the hyperfine-shifted 1H, 2H, and 15N signals from T4MOC. Selective deuteration led to identification of signals from the four Hbeta atoms of cluster ligands C45 and C64 in the oxidized and reduced forms of T4MOC. In the reduced state, the Curie temperature dependence of the Hbeta protons corresponded to that predicted from the simple vector spin-coupling model for nuclei associated with the localized ferric site. The signal at 25.5 ppm in the 1H spectrum of reduced T4MOC was assigned on the basis of selective 2H labeling to the His Hepsilon1 atom of one of the cluster ligands (H47 or H67). This assignment was corroborated by a one bond 1H-13C correlation (at 25.39 ppm 1H and 136.11 ppm 13C) observed in spectra of [U-13C]T4MOC with a 1H-13C coupling constant of approximately 192 Hz. The carbon chemical shift and one bond coupling constant are those expected for 1Hepsilon1-13Cepsilon1 in the imidazolium ring of histidine and are inconsistent with values expected for cysteine 1Halpha-13Calpha. The His Hepsilon1 proton exhibited weak Curie temperature dependence from 283 to 303 K, contrary to the anti-Curie temperature dependence predicted from the spin coupling model for nuclei associated with the localized ferrous site. A 1H peak at -12.3 ppm was observed in spectra of reduced T4MOC; this signal was found to correspond to a hydrogen (probably in an H-bond to the cluster) that exchanged with solvent with a half-time of about 2 days in the oxidized state but with a much longer (undetectable) half-time in the reduced state. These results with T4MOC call into question certain 1H assignments recently reported on the basis of NOE measurements for the comparable Rieske ferredoxin component of an evolutionarily related alkene monooxygenase from Xanthobacter sp. Py2 [Holz, R. C., Small, F. J., and Ensign, S. A, (1997) Biochemistry 36, 14690-14696]. Selective 15N labeling was used to identify hyperfine-shifted 15N NMR signals from the backbone nitrogens of all four cluster ligands (C45, H47, C64, and H67), from the Nepsilon2 atoms of the two histidine ligands (H47 and H67), and from nonligand Gln and Ala residues (Q48 and A66) present in the cluster-binding motif of T4MOC in the oxidized and reduced states. The results indicate that the Ndelta1 of each of the two ligand histidines of T4MOC are ligated to an iron atom and reveal a pattern of H-bonding to the Rieske [2Fe-2S] center involving four (H47, Q48, A66, and H67 of T4MOC) of the five backbone amide H-bonds expected on the basis of comparison with the crystal structures of other related Rieske proteins; the fifth backbone amide (I50 of T4MOC) failed to exhibit a hyperfine shift. This anomaly may arise from the lack of an associated disulfide in T4MOC, a fundamental structural difference between the three types of Rieske proteins that may be related to functional diversity in this protein family.
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PMID:Detection and classification of hyperfine-shifted 1H, 2H, and 15N resonances of the Rieske ferredoxin component of toluene 4-monooxygenase. 988 13

"Metallosphaera yellowstonensis" is a thermoacidophilic archaeon isolated from Yellowstone National Park that is capable of autotrophic growth using Fe(II), elemental S, or pyrite as electron donors. Analysis of the draft genome sequence from M. yellowstonensis strain MK1 revealed seven different copies of heme copper oxidases (subunit I) in a total of five different terminal oxidase complexes, including doxBCEF, foxABCDEFGHIJ, soxABC, and the soxM supercomplex, as well as a novel hypothetical two-protein doxB-like polyferredoxin complex. Other genes found in M. yellowstonensis with possible roles in S and or Fe cycling include a thiosulfate oxidase (tqoAB), a sulfite oxidase (som), a cbsA cytochrome b(558/566), several small blue copper proteins, and a novel gene sequence coding for a putative multicopper oxidase (Mco). Results from gene expression studies, including reverse transcriptase (RT) quantitative PCR (qPCR) of cultures grown autotrophically on either Fe(II), pyrite, or elemental S showed that the fox gene cluster and mco are highly expressed under conditions where Fe(II) is an electron donor. Metagenome sequence and gene expression studies of Fe-oxide mats confirmed the importance of fox genes (e.g., foxA and foxC) and mco under Fe(II)-oxidizing conditions. Protein modeling of FoxC suggests a novel lysine-lysine or lysine-arginine heme B binding domain, indicating that it is likely the cytochrome component of a heterodimer complex with foxG as a ferredoxin subunit. Analysis of mco shows that it encodes a novel multicopper blue protein with two plastocyanin type I copper domains that may play a role in the transfer of electrons within the Fox protein complex. An understanding of metabolic pathways involved in aerobic iron and sulfur oxidation in Sulfolobales has broad implications for understanding the evolution and niche diversification of these thermophiles as well as practical applications in fields such as bioleaching of trace metals from pyritic ores.
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PMID:Terminal oxidase diversity and function in "Metallosphaera yellowstonensis": gene expression and protein modeling suggest mechanisms of Fe(II) oxidation in the sulfolobales. 2123 58