An electronic structural comparison of copper-peroxide complexes of relevance to hemocyanin and tyrosinase active sites

1991 ◽  
Vol 113 (9) ◽  
pp. 3246-3259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. Ross ◽  
Edward I. Solomon
2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 140120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh P. Morgan ◽  
Wenhe Zhong ◽  
Iain W. McNae ◽  
Paul A. M. Michels ◽  
Linda A. Fothergill-Gilmore ◽  
...  

The transition between the inactive T-state (apoenzyme) and active R-state (effector bound enzyme) of Trypanosoma cruzi pyruvate kinase (PYK) is accompanied by a symmetrical 8° rigid body rocking motion of the A- and C-domain cores in each of the four subunits, coupled with the formation of additional salt bridges across two of the four subunit interfaces. These salt bridges provide increased tetramer stability correlated with an enhanced specificity constant ( k cat / S 0.5 ). A detailed kinetic and structural comparison between the potential drug target PYKs from the pathogenic protists T. cruzi , T. brucei and Leishmania mexicana shows that their allosteric mechanism is conserved. By contrast, a structural comparison of trypanosomatid PYKs with the evolutionarily divergent PYKs of humans and of bacteria shows that they have adopted different allosteric strategies. The underlying principle in each case is to maximize ( k cat / S 0.5 ) by stabilizing and rigidifying the tetramer in an active R-state conformation. However, bacterial and mammalian PYKs have evolved alternative ways of locking the tetramers together. In contrast to the divergent allosteric mechanisms, the PYK active sites are highly conserved across species. Selective disruption of the varied allosteric mechanisms may therefore provide a useful approach for the design of species-specific inhibitors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (27) ◽  
pp. E5317-E5324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Cook ◽  
Ting Wang ◽  
Thomas S. Leyh

Monoamine neurotransmitters are among the hundreds of signaling small molecules whose target interactions are switched “on” and “off” via transfer of the sulfuryl-moiety (–SO3) from PAPS (3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphosulfate) to the hydroxyls and amines of their scaffolds. These transfer reactions are catalyzed by a small family of broad-specificity enzymes—the human cytosolic sulfotransferases (SULTs). The first structure of a SULT allosteric-binding site (that of SULT1A1) has recently come to light. The site is conserved among SULT1 family members and is promiscuous—it binds catechins, a naturally occurring family of flavanols. Here, the catechin-binding site of SULT1A3, which sulfonates monoamine neurotransmitters, is modeled on that of 1A1 and used to screen in silico for endogenous metabolite 1A3 allosteres. Screening predicted a single high-affinity allostere, tetrahydrobiopterin (THB), an essential cofactor in monoamine neurotransmitter biosynthesis. THB is shown to bind and inhibit SULT1A3 with high affinity, 23 (±2) nM, and to bind weakly, if at all, to the four other major SULTs found in brain and liver. The structure of the THB-bound binding site is determined and confirms that THB binds the catechin site. A structural comparison of SULT1A3 with SULT1A1 (its immediate evolutionary progenitor) reveals how SULT1A3 acquired high affinity for THB and that the majority of residue changes needed to transform 1A1 into 1A3 are clustered at the allosteric and active sites. Finally, sequence records reveal that the coevolution of these sites played an essential role in the evolution of simian neurotransmitter metabolism.


Author(s):  
Alexis T. Bell

Heterogeneous catalysts, used in industry for the production of fuels and chemicals, are microporous solids characterized by a high internal surface area. The catalyticly active sites may occur at the surface of the bulk solid or of small crystallites deposited on a porous support. An example of the former case would be a zeolite, and of the latter, a supported metal catalyst. Since the activity and selectivity of a catalyst are known to be a function of surface composition and structure, it is highly desirable to characterize catalyst surfaces with atomic scale resolution. Where the active phase is dispersed on a support, it is also important to know the dispersion of the deposited phase, as well as its structural and compositional uniformity, the latter characteristics being particularly important in the case of multicomponent catalysts. Knowledge of the pore size and shape is also important, since these can influence the transport of reactants and products through a catalyst and the dynamics of catalyst deactivation.


Author(s):  
C. Jacobsen ◽  
J. Fu ◽  
S. Mayer ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
S. Williams

In scanning luminescence x-ray microscopy (SLXM), a high resolution x-ray probe is used to excite visible light emission (see Figs. 1 and 2). The technique has been developed with a goal of localizing dye-tagged biochemically active sites and structures at 50 nm resolution in thick, hydrated biological specimens. Following our initial efforts, Moronne et al. have begun to develop probes based on biotinylated terbium; we report here our progress towards using microspheres for tagging.Our initial experiments with microspheres were based on commercially-available carboxyl latex spheres which emitted ~ 5 visible light photons per x-ray absorbed, and which showed good resistance to bleaching under x-ray irradiation. Other work (such as that by Guo et al.) has shown that such spheres can be used for a variety of specific labelling applications. Our first efforts have been aimed at labelling ƒ actin in Chinese hamster ovarian (CHO) cells. By using a detergent/fixative protocol to load spheres into cells with permeabilized membranes and preserved morphology, we have succeeded in using commercial dye-loaded, spreptavidin-coated 0.03μm polystyrene spheres linked to biotin phalloidon to label f actin (see Fig. 3).


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 811-821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhao-Meng Wang ◽  
Li-Juan Liu ◽  
Bo Xiang ◽  
Yue Wang ◽  
Ya-Jing Lyu ◽  
...  

The catalytic activity decreases as –(SiO)3Mo(OH)(O) > –(SiO)2Mo(O)2 > –(O)4–MoO.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (18) ◽  
pp. 6266-6273
Author(s):  
Yalan Zhang ◽  
Zebin Yu ◽  
Ronghua Jiang ◽  
Jung Huang ◽  
Yanping Hou ◽  
...  

Excellent electrochemical water splitting with remarkable durability can provide a solution to satisfy the increasing global energy demand in which the electrode materials play an important role.


1975 ◽  
Vol 34 (03) ◽  
pp. 859-860
Author(s):  
M. G Davey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Travis Marshall-Roth ◽  
Nicole J. Libretto ◽  
Alexandra T. Wrobel ◽  
Kevin Anderton ◽  
Nathan D. Ricke ◽  
...  

Iron- and nitrogen-doped carbon (Fe-N-C) materials are leading candidates to replace platinum in fuel cells, but their active site structures are poorly understood. A leading postulate is that iron active sites in this class of materials exist in an Fe-N<sub>4</sub> pyridinic ligation environment. Yet, molecular Fe-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) generally feature pyrrolic coordination and pyridinic Fe-N<sub>4</sub> catalysts are, to the best of our knowledge, non-existent. We report the synthesis and characterization of a molecular pyridinic hexaazacyclophane macrocycle, (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe, and compare its spectroscopic, electrochemical, and catalytic properties for oxygen reduction to a prototypical Fe-N-C material, as well as iron phthalocyanine, (Pc)Fe, and iron octaethylporphyrin, (OEP)Fe, prototypical pyrrolic iron macrocycles. N 1s XPS signatures for coordinated N atoms in (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe are positively shifted relative to (Pc)Fe and (OEP)Fe, and overlay with those of Fe-N-C. Likewise, spectroscopic XAS signatures of (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe are distinct from those of both (Pc)Fe and (OEP)Fe, and are remarkably similar to those of Fe-N-C with compressed Fe–N bond lengths of 1.97 Å in (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe that are close to the average 1.94 Å length in Fe-N-C. Electrochemical studies establish that both (Pc)Fe and (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe have relatively high Fe(III/II) potentials at ~0.6 V, ~300 mV positive of (OEP)Fe. The ORR onset potential is found to directly correlate with the Fe(III/II) potential leading to a ~300 mV positive shift in the onset of ORR for (Pc)Fe and (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe relative to (OEP)Fe. Consequently, the ORR onset for (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe and (Pc)Fe is within 150 mV of Fe-N-C. Unlike (OEP)Fe and (Pc)Fe, (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe displays excellent selectivity for 4-electron ORR with <4% maximum H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> production, comparable to Fe-N-C materials. The aggregate spectroscopic and electrochemical data establish (phen<sub>2</sub>N<sub>2</sub>)Fe as a pyridinic iron macrocycle that effectively models Fe-N-C active sites, thereby providing a rich molecular platform for understanding this important class of catalytic materials.<p><b></b></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Stepic ◽  
Lara Jurković ◽  
Ksenia Klementyeva ◽  
Marko Ukrainczyk ◽  
Matija Gredičak ◽  
...  

In many living organisms, biomolecules interact favorably with various surfaces of calcium carbonate. In this work, we have considered the interactions of aspartate (Asp) derivatives, as models of complex biomolecules, with calcite. Using kinetic growth experiments, we have investigated the inhibition of calcite growth by Asp, Asp2 and Asp3.This entailed the determination of a step-pinning growth regime as well as the evaluation of the adsorption constants and binding free energies for the three species to calcite crystals. These latter values are compared to free energy profiles obtained from fully atomistic molecular dynamics simulations. When using a flat (104) calcite surface in the models, the measured trend of binding energies is poorly reproduced. However, a more realistic model comprised of a surface with an island containing edges and corners, yields binding energies that compare very well with experiments. Surprisingly, we find that most binding modes involve the positively charged, ammonium group. Moreover, while attachment of the negatively charged carboxylate groups is also frequently observed, it is always balanced by the aqueous solvation of an equal or greater number of carboxylates. These effects are observed on all calcite features including edges and corners, the latter being associated with dominant affinities to Asp derivatives. As these features are also precisely the active sites for crystal growth, the experimental and theoretical results point strongly to a growth inhibition mechanism whereby these sites become blocked, preventing further attachment of dissolved ions and halting further growth.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document