title: Bacterial glutamate racemase has high sequence similarity with myoglobins and forms an equimolar inactive complex with hemin.
abstract: Glutamate racemase (EC 5.1.1.3), an enzyme of microbial origin, shows significant sequence homology with mammalian myoglobins, in particular in the regions corresponding to the E and F helices, which constitute the heme binding pocket of myoglobins. Glutamate racemase binds tightly an equimolar amount of hemin, leading to loss of racemase activity. Although this enzyme shows homology with aspartate racemase, the latter does not bind hemin. The glutamate racemase gene of Pediococcus pentosaceus has a 795-nt open reading frame and encodes 265-amino acid residues, which form a monomeric protein (M(r) 29,000). Neither racemase has cofactors, but they contain essential cysteine residues [Yohda, M., Okada, H. & Kumagai, H. (1991) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1089, 234-240].
authors.affiliation: Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University, Japan.
authors.forename: S Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Esaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ashiuchi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Soda
mesh_terms: D000591:Amino Acid Isomerases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D006418:Heme / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D007700:Kinetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009211:Myoglobin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010376:Pediococcus / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D011485:Protein Binding; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013053:Spectrophotometry
chemical_list: D009211:Myoglobin; D006418:Heme; D000591:Amino Acid Isomerases; C062292:glutamate racemase