Prosthetic heme group

In order for the cyclooxygenase to function, a source of hydroperoxide (R—O—O—H) appears to be required. The hydroperoxide oxidizes a heme prosthetic group at the peroxidase active site of PGH synthase. This in turn leads to the oxidation of a tyrosine residue producing a tyrosine radical which is apparendy involved in the abstraction of the 13-pro-(5)-hydrogen of AA (25). The cyclooxygenase is inactivated during catalysis by the nonproductive breakdown of an active enzyme intermediate. This suicide inactivation occurs, on average, every 1400 catalytic turnovers. 

Figure 10.1 Conformation of epothilone D bound in the P450epol< active site. The figure was prepared from PDB entry 1PKF using Swiss-PdbViewer [27]. The heme prosthetic group is shown with its cysteinate ligand (Cys365) bound. For clarity, amino acids lining the active site have been omitted apart from Phe96.

Murphy Ml, LM Siegel, H Kamin (1973) Reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate-sulfite reductase of enterobacteria. II. Identification of a new class of heme prosthetic group an iron-tetrahydroporphyrin (isobacteriochlorin type) with eight carboxylic acid groups. J Biol Chem 248 2801-3814. 

It has the heme prosthetic group covalently bonded to protein cytochrome c does not lose its heme catalytic group in these systems, while peroxidases do (catalysis in organic solvents)... 

It is quite evident that the ferrous complexes of porphyrins, both natural and synthetic, have extremely high affinities towards NO. A series of iron (II) porphyrin nitrosyls have been synthesized and their structural data [11, 27] revealed non-axial symmetry and the bent form of the Fe-N=0 moiety [112-116]. It has been found that the structure of the Fe-N-O unit in model porphyrin complexes is different from those observed in heme proteins [117]. The heme prosthetic group is chemically very similar, hence the conformational diversity was thought to arise from the steric and electronic interaction of NO with the protein residue. In order to resolve this issue femtosecond infrared polarization spectroscopy was used [118]. The results also provided evidence for the first time that a significant fraction (35%) of NO recombines with the heme-Fe(II) within the first 5 ps after the photolysis, making myoglobin an efficient N O scavenger. 

Fig. 1. Space filling model of yeast iso-1-cytochrome c. The edge of the heme prosthetic group is visible as a black linear structure in the center of the protein. Phe-82 is shaded a dark gray at the left upper side of the heme group...

Perhaps the most fundamental fimctional property of a heme prosthetic group at the active site of a heme protein is the relative stability of the reduced and oxidized states of the heme iron. A number of structural characteristics of the heme binding environment provided by the apo-protein have been identified as contributing to the regulation of this equilibrium and have been reviewed elsewhere 82-84). Although a comprehensive discussion of these factors is not possible in the space available here, they can be summarized briefly. The two most significant influences of the reduction potential of the heme iron appear to be the dielectric constant of the heme environment 81, 83) and the chemical... 

Fig. 7. Structures of modified heme prosthetic groups identified in three isoforms of suifmyoglobm.

The diversity among catalases, evident in the variety of subunit sizes, the number of quaternary structures, the different heme prosthetic groups, and the variety of sequence groups, enables them to be organized in four main groups the classic monofunctional enzymes (type A), the catalase-peroxidases (type B), the nonheme catalases (type C), and miscellaneous proteins with minor catalatic activities (type D). 

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