Structural and Phylogenetic Analysis of Rhodobacter capsulatus NifF: Uncovering General Features of Nitrogen-fixation (nif)-Flavodoxins

Analysis of the crystal structure of NifF from Rhodobacter capsulatus and its homologues reported so far reflects the existence of unique structural features in nif flavodoxins: a leucine at the re face of the isoalloxazine, an eight-residue insertion at the C-terminus of the 50’s loop and a remarka...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pérez-Dorado, Inmaculada, Bortolotti, Ana, Cortez, Néstor, Hermoso, Juan A.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2013
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/158519
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/158519
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Flavodoxin
Nitrogen fixation
Crystal structures
Phylogenetic analysis
Descripción
Sumario:Analysis of the crystal structure of NifF from Rhodobacter capsulatus and its homologues reported so far reflects the existence of unique structural features in nif flavodoxins: a leucine at the re face of the isoalloxazine, an eight-residue insertion at the C-terminus of the 50’s loop and a remarkable difference in the electrostatic potential surface with respect to non-nif flavodoxins. A phylogenetic study on 64 sequences from 52 bacterial species revealed four clusters, including different functional prototypes, correlating the previously defined as “short-chain” with the firmicutes flavodoxins and the “long-chain” with gram-negative species. The comparison of Rhodobacter NifF structure with other bacterial flavodoxin prototypes discloses the concurrence of specific features of these functional electron donors to nitrogenase.