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2010
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vol. 57
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issue 3
261-264
EN
Protein crystallography, the main experimental method of structural biology, has undergone in the recent past three revolutionary changes leading to its unexpected renaissance. They were connected with (i) the introduction of synchrotron radiation sources for X-ray diffraction experiments, (ii) implementation of Se-Met multiwavelength anomalous diffraction (MAD) for phasing, and (iii) initiation of structural genomics (SG) programs. It can be foreseen that in the next 10-15 years protein crystallography will continue to be in this revolutionary phase. We can expect not only an avalanche of protein crystal structures from SG centers, but also attacking of more demanding projects, such as the structure of membrane proteins and of very large macromolecular complexes. On the technological front, the introduction of X-ray radiation from free-electron lasers will revolutionize the experimental possibilities, making feasible even the imaging of single molecules and of intact biological cells.
EN
Enzymes capable of converting l-asparagine to l-aspartate can be classified as bacterial-type or plant-type l-asparaginases. Bacterial-type l-asparaginases are further divided into subtypes I and II, defined by their intra-/extra-cellular localization, substrate affinity, and oligomeric form. Plant-type l-asparaginases are evolutionarily and structurally distinct from the bacterial-type enzymes. They function as potassium-dependent or -independent Ntn-hydrolases, similar to the well characterized aspartylglucosaminidases with (αβ)2 oligomeric structure. The review discusses the structural aspects of both types of l-asparaginases and highlights some peculiarities of their catalytic mechanisms. The bacterial-type enzymes are believed to have a disordered active site which gets properly organized on substrate binding. The plant-type enzymes, which are more active as isoaspartyl aminopeptidases, pose a chemical challenge common to other Ntn-hydrolases, which is how an N-terminal nucleophile can activate itself or cleave its own α-amide bond before the activation is even possible. The K+-independent plant-type l-asparaginases show an unusual sodium coordination by main-chain carbonyl groups and have a key arginine residue which by sensing the arrangement at the oligomeric (αβ)-(αβ) interface is able to discriminate among substrates presented for hydrolysis.
EN
The fucosyltransferase NodZ is involved in the biosynthesis of the nodulation factor in nitrogen-fixing symbiotic bacteria. It catalyzes α1,6 transfer of l-fucose from GDP-fucose to the reducing residue of the synthesized Nod oligosaccharide. We present the structure of the NodZ protein from Bradyrhizobium expressed in Escherichia coli and crystallized in the presence of phosphate ions in two crystal forms. The enzyme is arranged into two domains of nearly equal size. Although NodZ falls in one broad class (GT-B) with other two-domain glycosyltransferases, the topology of its domains deviates from the canonical Rossmann fold, with particularly high distortions in the N-terminal domain. Mutational data combined with structural and sequence alignments indicate residues of potential importance in GDP-fucose binding or in the catalytic mechanism. They are all clustered in three conserved sequence motifs located in the C-terminal domain.
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