Old and new structural inorganicbiochemistry on blue copper proteins

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K17862
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Structural biochemistry; Bio-related chemistry
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Fukuda Yohta 大阪大学, 工学研究科, 助教 (20783179)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: ブルー銅タンパク質 / 結晶構造解析

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The purposes of this project about blue copper proteins (BCPs) are i) structural and functional analysis of a tandem-type BCP (Tan-BCP), 2) structural and functional analysis of a new BCP, CinA, and 3) construction of an artificial BCP enzyme. i) I could purify a Tan-BCP but could not crystallize because it showed low purity and did not include a Cu ion. ii) I made several constructs. None of them gave crystals large enough to investigate with X-ray crystallography. iii) I obtained N-terminal domain of copper nitrite reductases (NIRs) as an artificial enzyme. Though my original research proposal did not include a project about CPR-NIR that is from a CPR bacterium, I purified and analyzed it to reveal that CPR-NIR is different from known NIRs.

Free Research Field

生物無機化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

構造生物学の歴史おいて、BCPは比較的初期の頃から構造解析がおこなわれてきたタンパク質であり、基本的なことはもう調べつくされたかに思われている。そのためか、近年のゲノム解析で新しいBCPが見つかってきているにも関わらず、それらについての構造生物学的研究はほとんど進んでいないのが現状である。本研究では、当初の計画には無かったものの、ごく最近発見されたCPRバクテリア由来の新規なBCPのひとつについて構造機能解析をおこなうことができた。