title: Tertiary templates for the design of diiron proteins.
abstract: Diiron proteins represent a diverse class of structures involved in the binding and activation of oxygen. This review explores the simple structural features underlying the common metal-ion-binding and oxygen-binding properties of these proteins. The backbone geometries of their active sites are formed by four-helix bundles, which may be parameterized to within approximately 1 A root mean square deviation. Such parametric models are excellent starting points for investigating how asymmetric deviations from an idealized geometry influence the functional properties of the metal ion centers. These idealized models also provide attractive frameworks for de novo protein design.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6059, USA. csumma@mail.med.upenn.edu
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Summa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lewis
authors.forename: W F
authors.initials: WF
authors.lastname: DeGrado
mesh_terms: D001665:Binding Sites; D015195:Drug Design; D007501:Iron / Q000737:chemistry*; D007502:Iron Chelating Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D008667:Metalloproteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010100:Oxygen / Q000378:metabolism; D011487:Protein Conformation; D015202:Protein Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship; D013698:Templates, Genetic
chemical_list: D007502:Iron Chelating Agents; D008667:Metalloproteins; D007501:Iron; D010100:Oxygen