Thioredoxin disulfide

Figure 4. Titration curves for hen egg white lysozyme and thioredoxin disulfide radical. Red lysozyme blue ...

The deoxynucleotides, that is, the nucleotides where the hydroxyl at C2 of the ribose unit is missing (including thymidine phosphate), are generated from the nucleotides where the hydroxyl group is present using a thioredoxin disulfide on the diphosphates (ribonucleoside diphosphate reductase, EC 1.17.4.1). In this way, ribonucleo-... 

The thioredoxin domain (see Figure 2.7) has a central (3 sheet surrounded by a helices. The active part of the molecule is a Pa(3 unit comprising p strands 2 and 3 joined by a helix 2. The redox-active disulfide bridge is at the amino end of this a helix and is formed by a Cys-X-X-Cys motif where X is any residue in DsbA, in thioredoxin, and in other members of this family of redox-active proteins. The a-helical domain of DsbA is positioned so that this disulfide bridge is at the center of a relatively extensive hydrophobic protein surface. Since disulfide bonds in proteins are usually buried in a hydrophobic environment, this hydrophobic surface in DsbA could provide an interaction area for exposed hydrophobic patches on partially folded protein substrates. 

Figure 6.8 Schematic diagram of the enzyme DsbA which catalyzes disulfide bond formation and rearrangement. The enzyme is folded into two domains, one domain comprising five a helices (green) and a second domain which has a structure similar to the disulfide-containing redox protein thioredoxin (violet). The N-terminal extension (blue) is not present in thioredoxin. (Adapted from J.L. Martin et al.. Nature 365 464-468, 1993.)...

The C-terminal domain of phosducin is a five-stranded mixed p sheet with a helices on both sides, similar to the thioredoxin fold of disulfide iso-merase DsbA described in Chapter 6. Despite significant sequence homology to thioredoxin, the phosducin domain, unlike other members of this family. 

Deoxynucleotides for DNA synthesis are made at the nucleoside diphosphate level and then have to be phosphorylated up to the triphosphate using a kinase and ATP. The reducing equivalents for the reaction come from a small protein, thioredoxin, that contains an active site with two cysteine residues. Upon reduction of the ribose to the 2 -deoxyri-bose, the thioredoxin is oxidized to the disulfide. The thioredoxin(SS) made during the reaction is recycled by reduction with NADPH by the enzyme thioredoxin reductase. 

Mammalian thioredoxin reductases are a family of selenium-containing pyridine nucleotide-disulfide oxidoreductases. These enzymes catalyze NADPH-dependent reduction of the redox protein thioredoxin (Trx), which contains a redox-active disulfide and dithiol group and by itself may function as an efficient cytosolic antioxidant [77]. One of the functions of Trx/ thioredoxin reductase system is the NADPH-catalyzed reduction of protein disulfide [78] ... 

Staples CR, Gaymard E, Stritt-Etter A-L, et al. 1998. Role of the 6484] cluster in mediating disulfide reduction in spinach ferredoxin thioredoxin reductase. Biochemistry 37 4612-20. 

In the first step, thioredoxin reductase reduces a small redox protein, thioredoxin, via enzyme-bound FAD. This involves cleavage of a disulfide bond in thioredoxin. The resulting SH groups in turn reduce a catalytically active disulfide bond in nucleoside diphosphate reductase ( ribonucleotide reductase ). The free SH groups formed in this way are the actual electron donors for the reduction of ribonucleotide diphosphates. 

Aslund, E, Bemdt, K.D., Holmgren, A. Redox potentials of glutaredoxins and other thiol-disulfide oxidoreductases of the thioredoxin superfamily determined by direct protein-protein redox equilibria. J Biol Chem 272(49), 30780-30786 (1997)... 

Toxicants, which are proteins, may not be detoxified by the means so far described. They may however be degraded by proteases, removed by antibodies if antigenic, and recognized as foreign. Also those toxicants that rely on disulfide bonds for structure and activity can be inactivated by the enzyme thioredoxin, which reduces these bonds to sulfydryl. 

Regeneration of reduced enzyme In order for ribonucleotide reductase to continue to produce deoxyribonucleotides, the disulfide bond created during the production of the 2 -deoxy carbon must be reduced. The source of the reducing equivalents is thioredoxin—a peptide coenzyme of ribonucleotide reductase. Thioredoxin contains two cysteine residues separated by two amino acids in the peptide chain. The two sulfhydryl groups of thioredoxin donate their hydrogen atoms to ribonucleotide reductase, in the process forming a disulfide bond (see p. 19). 

If there are three or more -SH groups in a chain some incorrect pairing may, and often does, occur. Tire protein disulfide isomerases break these bonds and allow new ones to form.92 The active sites of these isomerases contain pairs of -SH groups which can be oxidized to internal -S-S- bridges by NAD+-dependent enzymes. These enzymes and their relatives thioredoxin and glutaredoxin are discussed further in Box 15-C. Glutathione and oxidation-reduction buffering are considered in Box 11-B. 

The reaction catalyzed by the first of these is illustrated in Table 15-2 (reaction type F). The other two enzymes usually promote the reverse type of reaction, the reduction of a disulfide to two SH groups by NADPH (Eq. 15-22). Glutathione reductase splits its substrate into two halves while reduction of the small 12-kDa protein thioredoxin (Box 15-C) simply opens a loop in its peptide chain. The reduction of lipoic acid opens the small disulfide-containing 5-membered ring in that molecule. Each of these flavoproteins also contains within its structure a reducible disulfide group that participates in catalysis. 

The pKa assignments, which have been controversial, are discussed in Chapter 7. This disulfide loop is reduced by NADPH through the action of the flavoprotein enzyme thioredoxin reductase. 

It was a surprise to discover that a mutant of E. coli lacking thioredoxin can still reduce ribonucleotides. In the mutant cells thioredoxin is replaced by glutaredoxin, whose active site disulfide linkage is reduced by glutathione rather than directly by NADPH. Oxidized glutathione is, in turn, reduced by NADPH and glutathione reductase. Thus, the end result is the same with respect to ribonucleotide reduction. 

However, the two proteins have significantly different specificities and functions. The disulfide loop in glutaredoxin, whose eukaryotic forms are often called thioltransferases/ has the sequence CPYC. Although glutaredoxins are weaker reductants of mixed disulfides of proteins with glutathione than are thioredoxins/1 sthey are more specific. 

Both thioredoxin and glutaredoxin are members of a larger group of thiol disulfide oxidoreductases which are found in all known organisms. In E. coli there are one thioredoxin, three different glutaredoxins,h/t and the periplasmic protein disulfide... 

A variation is observed for E. coli thioredoxin reductase. The reducible disulfide and the NADPH binding site are both on the same side of the flavin rather than on opposite sides as in Fig. 15-12.190/259 Mercuric reductase also uses NADPH as the reductant transferring the 4S hydrogen. The Hg2+ presumably binds to a sulfur atom of the reduced disulfide loop and there undergoes reduction. The observed geometry of the active site is correct for this mechanism. 

Ribonucleotides are reduced to the 2 -deoxyribo-nucleotides (Eq. 16-21) that are needed for DNA synthesis by enzymes that act on either the di- or triphosphates of the purine and pyrimidine nucleosides348-351 (Chapter 25). These ribonucleotide reductases utilize either thioredoxin or glutaredoxin (Box 15-C) as the immediate hydrogen donors (Eq. 16-22). The pair of closely spaced -SH groups in the reduced thioredoxin or glutaredoxin are converted into a disulfide bridge at the same time that the 2 -OH of the ribonucleotide di- (or tri-) phosphate is converted to H20. While some organisms employ a vitamin B12-... 

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