title: C-type cytochrome formation: chemical and biological enigmas.
abstract: C-type cytochromes are proteins that are essential for the life of virtually all organisms. They characteristically contain heme that is covalently attached via thioether bonds to two cysteines in the protein. In this Account, we describe the challenging chemistry of thioether bond formation and the surprising variety of biogenesis systems that exist in nature to perform the difficult posttranslational heme attachment process. We show what insight has been gained into the various biogenesis systems from in vitro and in vivo experiments and highlight some forthcoming challenges in this field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QU, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Julie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Daltrop
authors.forename: James W A
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Ferguson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D006418:Heme / Q000378:metabolism; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D015394:Molecular Structure
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006418:Heme; D045304:Cytochromes c