Researchers in Germany identified the precise structural differences that determine if a protein becomes an active enzyme or an iron scaffold. This finding, reported in Nature Communications, provides deeper insight into fundamental cellular processes, such as DNA synthesis and iron metabolism.
Four mutations in a group of proteins, called glutaredoxins, determine how the proteins operate in everything from bacteria and yeast to plants and humans, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications.
“These proteins are central to essential metabolic pathways,” said Professor Marcel Deponte, a biochemist who led the research at the Technische Universität Kaiserslautern. “Learning more about them improves our basic understanding of how life works.”
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Image credit: TU Kaiserslautern, M. Deponte