Structural highlights
Function[NXL3_NAJNA] Produces peripheral paralysis by blocking neuromuscular transmission at the postsynaptic site. Binds to muscular and neuronal (only alpha-7 alpha-8 alpha-9) nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (By similarity). 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 PubMedThe crystal structure of the "long" alpha-neurotoxin alpha-cobratoxin was refined to an R-factor of 19.5% using 3271 x-ray data to 2.4-A resolution. The polypeptide chain forms three loops, I, II, III, knotted together by four disulfide bridges, with the most prominent, loop II, containing another disulfide close to its lower tip. Loop I is stabilized by one beta-turn and two beta-sheet hydrogen bonds; loop II by eight beta-sheet hydrogen bonds, with the tip folded into two distorted right-handed helical turns stabilized by two alpha-helical and two beta-turn hydrogen bonds; and loop III by hydrophobic interactions and one beta-turn. Loop II and one strand of loop III form an antiparallel triple-pleated beta-sheet, and tight anchoring of the Asn63 side chain fixes the tail segment. In the crystal lattice, the alpha-cobratoxin molecules dimerize by beta-sheet formation between strands 53 and 57 of symmetry-related molecules. Because such interactions are found also in a cardiotoxin and alpha-bungarotoxin, this could be of importance for interaction with acetylcholine receptor. The refined crystal structure of alpha-cobratoxin from Naja naja siamensis at 2.4-A resolution.,Betzel C, Lange G, Pal GP, Wilson KS, Maelicke A, Saenger W J Biol Chem. 1991 Nov 15;266(32):21530-6. PMID:1939183[1] From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. References | ||||||||||||||||
This page was last modified 01:33, 12 September 2015.