SUBJECTS metal binding, structural studies

Metalloproteomics is a new subject focusing on the distributions and compositions of all metalloproteins in a proteome (metalloproteome), their structural and functional characterization and their structural metal binding moieties. The specificity of metalloproteomics studies demands the need for a description of the metal-binding sites, metal stoichiometry, and metal-depen-dent structure or conformation changes as well as the identifieation and quantification of the metalloproteins. The metalloproteome can be considered as not only a subset of the metallome, but also a very important subset of the proteome. 

The role of metals, and in particular Zn, in the regulation of gene expression has been a subject of recent studies in the last decade. The term zinc finger for this type of structure is generally accepted [8,9], The Zn(II) ion does not act as a catalyst, but resembles more a cofactor that folds the protein in a specific conformation, as a result of which it binds to nucleic acids, such that certain genes are being activated for expression [9],... 

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