1jqf
Human Transferrin N-Lobe Mutant H249Q
Structural highlights
DiseaseTRFE_HUMAN Defects in TF are the cause of atransferrinemia (ATRAF) [MIM:209300. Atransferrinemia is rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by iron overload and hypochromic anemia.[1] [2] FunctionTRFE_HUMAN Transferrins are iron binding transport proteins which can bind two Fe(3+) ions in association with the binding of an anion, usually bicarbonate. It is responsible for the transport of iron from sites of absorption and heme degradation to those of storage and utilization. Serum transferrin may also have a further role in stimulating cell proliferation. Evolutionary Conservation Check, as determined by ConSurfDB. You may read the explanation of the method and the full data available from ConSurf. Publication Abstract from PubMedProteins of the transferrin (Tf) family play a central role in iron homeostasis in vertebrates. In vertebrate Tfs, the four iron-binding ligands, 1 Asp, 2 Tyr, and 1 His, are invariant in both lobes of these bilobal proteins. In contrast, there are striking variations in the Tfs that have been characterized from insect species; in three of them, sequence changes in the C-lobe binding site render it nonfunctional, and in all of them the His ligand in the N-lobe site is changed to Gln. Surprisingly, mutagenesis of the histidine ligand, His249, to glutamine in the N-lobe half-molecule of human Tf (hTf/2N) shows that iron binding is destabilized and suggests that Gln249 does not bind to iron. We have determined the crystal structure of the H249Q mutant of hTf/2N and refined it at 1.85 A resolution (R = 0.221, R(free) = 0.246). The structure reveals that Gln249 does coordinate to iron, albeit with a lengthened Fe-Oepsilon1 bond of 2.34 A. In every other respect, the protein structure is unchanged from wild-type. Examination of insect Tf sequences shows that the K206.K296 dilysine pair, which aids iron release from the N-lobes of vertebrate Tfs, is not present in the insect proteins. We conclude that substitution of Gln for His does destabilize iron binding, but in the insect Tfs this is compensated by the loss of the dilysine interaction. The combination of a His ligand with the dilysine pair in vertebrate Tfs may have been a later evolutionary development that gives more sophisticated pH-mediated control of iron release from the N-lobe of transferrins. Ligand variation in the transferrin family: the crystal structure of the H249Q mutant of the human transferrin N-lobe as a model for iron binding in insect transferrins.,Baker HM, Mason AB, He QY, MacGillivray RT, Baker EN Biochemistry. 2001 Oct 2;40(39):11670-5. PMID:11570867[3] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. See AlsoReferences
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