title: What common structural features and variations of mammalian P450s are known to date?
abstract: Sufficient structural information on mammalian cytochromes P450 has now been published (including seventeen X-ray structures of these enzymes by June 2006) to allow characteristic features of these enzymes to be identified, including: (i) the presence of a common fold, typical of all P450s, (ii) similarities in the positioning of the heme cofactor, (iii) the spatial arrangement of certain structural elements, and (iv) the access/egress paths for substrates and products, (v) probably common orientation in the membrane, (vi) characteristic properties of the active sites with networks of water molecules, (vii) mode of interaction with redox partners and (viii) a certain degree of flexibility of the structure and active site determining the ease with which the enzyme may bind the substrates. As well as facilitating the identification of common features, comparison of the available structures allows differences among the structures to be identified, including variations in: (i) preferred access/egress paths to/from the active site, (ii) the active site volume and (iii) flexible regions. The availability of crystal structures provides opportunities for molecular dynamic simulations, providing data that are apparently complementary to experimental findings but also allow the dynamic behavior of access/egress paths and other dynamic features of the enzymes to be explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Palacky University, Svobody 26, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic. otyepka@aix.upol.cz
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Otyepka
authors.forename: Josef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Skopalík
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Anzenbacherová
authors.forename: Pavel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Anzenbacher
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001665:Binding Sites; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000737:chemistry*; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011487:Protein Conformation; D017510:Protein Folding; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D014867:Water; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System