For present purposes, a protein-bound metal site consists of one or more metal ions and all protein side chain and exogenous bridging and terminal ligands that define the first coordination sphere of each metal ion. Such sites can be classified into five basic types with the indicated functions: (1) structural -- configuration (in part) of protein tertiary and/or quaternary structure; (2) storage -- uptake, binding, and release of metals in soluble form: (3) electron transfer -- uptake, release, and storage of electrons; (4) dioxygen binding -- metal-O{sub 2} coordination and decoordination; and (5) catalytic -- substrate binding, activation, and turnover. The authors present here a classification and structure/function analysis of native metal sites based on these functions, where 5 is an extensive class subdivided by the type of reaction catalyzed. Within this purview, coverage of the various site types is extensive, but not exhaustive. The purpose of this exposition is to present examples of all types of sites and to relate, insofar as is currently feasible, the structure and function of selected types. The authors largely confine their considerations to the sites themselves, with due recognition that these site features are coupled to protein structure at all levels. In themore » next section, the coordination chemistry of metalloprotein sites and the unique properties of a protein as a ligand are briefly summarized. Structure/function relationships are systematically explored and tabulations of structurally defined sites presented. Finally, future directions in bioinorganic research in the context of metal site chemistry are considered. 620 refs.« less

/pdf/structural-and-functional-aspects-of-metal-sites-in-biology-a6d65lev8n.pdf

Structural and Functional Aspects of Metal Sites in Biology

Utilization of carbohydrate and fatty acids is strongly influenced by rates of con­ sumption and production of high energy compounds in cardiac muscle. In well­ oxygenated hearts, fatty acid has been identified as the preferred substrate by both in vivo and in vitro studies (for review see 146). Availability of fatty acid suppresses glucose utilization by inhibition of several steps in the glycolytic pathway. Since a variety of longand short-chained fatty substrates are inhibitory and since the effect is abolished in hearts perfused under anaerobic conditions, oxidation of the fatty acid appears to be required for this effect. When energy utilization of well­ oxygenated hearts is increased, consumption of fatty acids and/or glucose is ac­ celerated. Under these conditions, fatty acids remain the preferred oxidative substrate. Availability of oxygen to the heart can be restricted either by lowering or reducing to zero the oxygen tension of the perfusate, thereby inducing hypoxia or anoxia, or by restricting the flow of perfusate containing high oxygen tensions to induce ischemia. In hypoxic or anoxic hearts, fatty acid oxidation is suppressed and glycol­ ysis is stimulated. The acceleration of flux through glycolysis may be as much as 10to 20-fold. On the other hand, ischemia results in only a transient increase in glycolytic flux that is followed within 3-4 min by inhibition. Fatty acid oxidation is suppressed in ischemic hearts leading to accumulation of long-chained CoA derivatives and increase in triglyceride levels.

Relationship Between Carbohydrate and Lipid Metabolism and the Energy Balance of Heart Muscle

Zinc enzymology is, compared to some other current areas of metallobiochemistry, a maturing field, but in addition to further developments of structure-function relationships it has also provided a number of surprising new results and ideas in the last few years. In fact, the number of studies makes it impossible to provide a comprehensive review of the recent literature on zinc enzymology here, and the authors therefore focus on those zinc enzymes for which structure-function relationships are possible on the basis of structural and biochemical data. This means that, with a few exceptions, only zinc enzymes for which NMR or crystal structures are available are included here. Another seemingly simple, yet experimentally sometimes complex issue concerns the choice of which metalloenzyme is a zinc enzyme. Since there is in principle no difference in chemical catalysis by low-affinity compared to high-affinity metal sites, some of these enzymes are also included in this article, especially if they are or have been discussed as zinc enzymes, or are active with zinc. 552 refs.

Recent Advances in Zinc Enzymology

The importance of A TP as the main source of chemical energy in living matter and its involve­ ment in cellular processes has long been recog­ nized. The primary mechanism whereby higher or­ ganisms, including humans, generate ATP is through mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. For the majority of organs, the main metabolic fuel is glucose, which in the presence of oxygen under­ goes complete combustion to CO2 and H20: C6H1206 + 602 � 602 + 6H20 + energy ( 1) The free energy (.:lG) liberated in this exergonic re­ action is partially trapped as ATP in two consecu­ tive processes: glycolysis (cytosol) and oxidative phosphorylation (mitochondria). The first produces 2 mol of ATP per mol of glucose, and the second 36 mol of ATP per mol of glucose. In the latter case, 6 mol of ATP are contributed from the oxidation of 2 mol of NADH generated in the cytosol during gly­ colysis and transferred into the mitochondria indi­ rectly through various \"shuttle\" systems. (In the a-glycerophosphate shuttle, the yield of ATP per NADH is reduced from 3 to 2 because the relevant mitochondrial dehydrogenase is a flavoprotein­ linked enzyme). Thus, oxidative phosphorylation yields 1718 times as much useful energy in the form of ATP as can be obtained from the same amount of glucose by glycolysis alone. It is there­ fore not surprising that limitation of O2 supply pro­ duces very damaging effects on cellular function. The brain is one of the organs that is particularly sensitive to lack of oxygen and in humans at rest is responsible for 20% of total O2 consumption al­ though it accounts for only 2% of the body weight. The role of energy in the maintenance of central

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1038/jcbfm.1989.2

ATP and brain function

The discovery of fosfomycin, a new antibiotic produced by strains of Streptomyces, was announced under its former name phosphonomycin by Hendlin and colleagues in 1969.l The chemical structure shown in FIGURE 1 combines two unusual features: an epoxide ring, rare among antibiotics, and a carbon-phosphorus bond which is seen to occur here for the first time among the natural products of the bacteria. Most of the present account concerns the determination of the enzymatic step in cell wall biosynthesis that is ultimately blocked by fosfomycin. We compare in detail the action of that enzyme’s catalytic center upon the antibiotic and its normal substrate. We also describe the role of two stereospecific nutrient transport systems that by mediating the entry and accumulation of fosfomycin comprise the determining factors in the sensitivity of various bacteria to this polar antibiotic. Although the main conclusions of these mechanism of action studies were briefly stated by us in the initial announcement,’, the present publication is the first in which there appears any portion of the original experimental data that support those conclusions. Several reports have appeared from other laboratories 4, and from our own IJ in which certain basic findings and methodology were reproduced in the course of pursuing the independent goals of their studies. Their additional contributions to the understanding of fosfomycin action are cited at appropriate points in the succeeding text.

Edward L. O'Connell

Papers

Mechanism of Aconitase Action I. THE HYDROGEN TRANSFER REACTION

Role of inorganic phosphate in stimulating the glucose utilization of human red blood cells

Intramolecular hydrogen transfer in the phosphoglucose isomerase reaction.

The role of glucose 6-phosphate in the regulation of glucose metabolism in human erythrocytes.

Studies on the Interaction of Aldolase with Substrate Analogues