The Zinc proteome: a tale of stability and functionality

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2009

Authors

Sergio Filipe Sousa (Author) FCUP; Ana Branca Lopes (Author) Other; Pedro Alexandrino Fernandes (Author) FCUP; Maria Joao Ramos (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Dalton Transactions

Pages: 7946-7956

ISSN: 1477-9226

Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 60 Citations

Scopus - 62 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Chemical sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-003-PMM

DOI: 10.1039/b904404c

Abstract (EN): Zinc proteins constitute a very important portion of the large number of Metalloproteins currently known. However, contrary to what happens with biological systems containing Fe(II), Fe(III), Cu(II), Mn(II), Mn(III), Ni(II), Co(III) or other commonly found biologically relevant metal cofactors, the particular chemical properties of the Zn(II) ion mean that only a very small number of experimental techniques can be directly applied in the study of the metal coordination spheres present in Zinc proteins. The information obtainable from publicly available structural databases such as the Protein Data Bank can therefore be of particularly high significance to a better understanding of these proteins. In this study, we draw a detailed statistical portrait of the Zinc proteome by analysing the metal coordination spheres of the large number of X-ray crystallographic structures of Zinc proteins currently available on the Protein Data Bank. This data is further complemented with quantum mechanical calculations on the most common Zinc coordination spheres to evaluate the intrinsic thermodynamic stability of the several combinations of ligands on a generic and non-specific enzymatic environment, and with molecular electrostatic potential maps. These results provide useful insights into this difficult to characterize but very important Zn-containing subset of the proteome.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 11