INVESTIGADORES
BORON Carlos Ignacio
artículos
Título:
Structure and dynamics of Antarctic fish neuroglobin assessed by computer simulations.
Autor/es:
BORON I, RUSSO R, BOECHI L, CHENG CH, DI PRISCO G, ESTRIN DA, VERDE C, NADRA AD.
Revista:
IUBMB LIFE
Editorial:
Estados Unidos
Referencias:
Año: 2011 p. 206 - 213
ISSN:
1521-6551
Resumen:
Neuroglobin (Ngb) is a heme protein, highly conserved along evolution,
predominantly found in the nervous system. It is upregulated by hypoxia
and ischemia and may have a neuroprotective role under hypoxic stress.
Although many other roles have been proposed, the physiological function
is still unclear. Antarctic icefishes lack hemoglobin and some species
also lack myoglobin, but all have Ngb and thus may help the elucidation
of Ngb function. We present the first theoretically derived structure of
fish Ngb and describe its behavior using molecular dynamics
simulations. Specifically, we sequenced and analyzed Ngbs from a
colorless-blooded Antarctic icefish species Chaenocephalus aceratus and a related red-blooded species (Dissostichus mawsoni).
Both fish Ngbs are 6-coordinated but have some peculiarities that
differentiate them from mammalian counterparts: they have extensions in
the N and C termini that can interact with the EF loop, and a gap in the
alignment that changes the CD-region structure/dynamics that has been
found to play a key role in human neuroglobin. Our results suggest that a
single mutation between both fish Ngbs is responsible for significant
difference in the behavior of the proteins. The functional role of these
characteristics is discussed.