Cysteine groups

Biocatalysis refers to catalysis by enzymes. The enzyme may be introduced into the reaction in a purified isolated form or as a whole-cell micro-organism. Enzymes are highly complex proteins, typically made up of 100 to 400 amino acid units. The catalytic properties of an enzyme depend on the actual sequence of amino acids, which also determines its three-dimensional structure. In this respect the location of cysteine groups is particularly important since these form stable disulfide linkages, which hold the structure in place. This three-dimensional structure, whilst not directly involved in the catalysis, plays an important role by holding the active site or sites on the enzyme in the correct orientation to act as a catalyst. Some important aspects of enzyme catalysis, relevant to green chemistry, are summarized in Table 4.3. 

Figure 1.20 Cysteine and methionine are highly susceptible to oxidation reactions. Cysteine thiols can form disulfide linkages with other cysteine groups or be oxidized to cysteic acid. Methionine is oxidized very easily to the sulfoxide or sulfone products.

Despite the conclusions in the cited literature about direct MT interaction with free radicals, the mechanism of MT antioxidant activity remains obscure. Markant and Pallauf [339] concluded that cysteine groups and not zinc are responsible for the inhibition of lipid peroxidation in hepatocytes. Maret and Vallee [340,341] also questioned the possibility of direct scavenging of free radicals by MT and suggested that zinc release is a major mechanism of antioxidant effects of metallothioneins. 

The simplest of these proteins are rubredoxins, which are bacterial proteins having a characteristic red colour (from which their name is derived) containing an FeS4 assembly, consisting of an Fe(III) ion coordinated to four cysteine groups. The typical tetrahedral structure of this group is illustrated in Figure 17 for the rubredoxin isolated from Clostridium pasteurianum (FW 6100).35... 

Another problem that may arise is that the protein fusion may lead to inactivation of the enzyme. The destabilization of P-galactosidase when using a polyphenylalanine lag is an illustradve example (80). There may also be interference between SH groups on the protein and cysteine groups on the fused affinity tail. 

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