Structural Studies of a Novel Family of Manganese Uptake Proteins in Cyanothece Containing a Repeated Five-Residues Domain (RFR).
EMSL Project ID
16298
Abstract
Manganese is an essential trace element that all organisms require. Often, this metal is found in the enzyme?s active site, such as in ribonucleotide reductase, manganese-catalase, and manganese-superoxide-dimutase. As with many trace elements, high levels of manganese are toxic therefore cellular regulation is very important. Recently, a novel family of proteins containing a repeated five-residues domain, RFR, has been identified as playing a role in manganese uptake. The repeat unit is AXLXX (X being any amino acid) with strong conservation in the third position and usually a small hydrophobic residue in the first position. For example, RFR-A in Synechocystis has an RFR domain that contains 12 repeats. The genome of the cyanobacterium cyanothece has recently been sequenced and found to contain ~35 proteins containing an RFR domain. The proteins range in size from 105 to almost 1000 amino acid residues and are likely involved in manganese transport. To date, there is no structural information on any protein containing an RFR domain. As part of a Grand Challenge Project, lead by Dr. Pakrasi at Washington University in St. Louis, to understand the functional and structural details of this novel family of proteins, we plan to solve the first structure of a protein containing an RFR domain using NMR-based methods. We have cloned the smallest 22 RFR proteins from cyanothece and are currently screening them to find a suitable candidate for structural studies. Table 1 illustrates our screening progress to date.
Project Details
Project type
Grand Challenge
Start Date
2005-10-01
End Date
2006-11-21
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members
Related Publications
Buchko GW, and HJ Sofia. 2008. "Backbone 1H, 13C, and 15N NMR assignments for the Cyanothece 51142 protein cce_0567: a protein associated with nitrogen fixation in the DUF683 family." Biomolecular NMR Assignments 2:25-28.
Buchko GW, and H Robinson. 2012. "Crystal structure of cce_0566 from Cyanothece 51142, a protein associated with nitrogen fixation in the DUF269 family." FEBS Letters 586(4):350-355. doi:10.1016/j.febslet.2012.01.037