2fad: Difference between revisions

[[Image:2fad.gif|left|200px]]<br /><applet load="2fad" size="350" color="white" frame="true" align="right" spinBox="true"  

A knowledge of the structures of acyl chain loaded species of the acyl carrier protein (ACP) as used in fatty acid biosynthesis and a range of other metabolic events, is essential for a full understanding of the molecular recognition at the heart of these processes. To date the only crystal structure of an acylated species of ACP is that of a butyryl derivative of Escherichia coli ACP. We have now determined the structures of a family of acylated E. coli ACPs of varying acyl chain length. The acyl moiety is attached via a thioester bond to a phosphopantetheine linker that is in turn bound to a serine residue in ACP. The growing acyl chain can be accommodated within a central cavity in the ACP for transport during the elongation stages of lipid synthesis through changes in the conformation of a four alpha-helix bundle. The results not only clarify the means by which a substrate of varying size and complexity is transported in the cell but also suggest a mechanism by which interacting enzymes can recognize the loaded ACP through recognition of surface features including the conformation of the phosphopantetheine linker.

2FAD is a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_protein Single protein] structure of sequence from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escherichia_coli Escherichia coli] with <scene name='pdbligand=NA:'>NA</scene>, <scene name='pdbligand=ZN:'>ZN</scene> and <scene name='pdbligand=PM5:'>PM5</scene> as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ligands ligands]. Full crystallographic information is available from [http://oca.weizmann.ac.il/oca-bin/ocashort?id=2FAD OCA].  

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