Given a protein sequence, how can we identify whether it is a metalloprotein or not? If it is, which main functional class and subclasses it belongs to? This is an important biological question because they are closely related to the biological function of an uncharacterized protein. Particularly, with the avalanche of protein sequences generated in the post genomic era and since conventional t...

Nitric oxide (NO) plays an essential role within the immune system since it is involved in the break-down of infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria. The ability to measure the presence of NO in the intracellular environment would provide a greater understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism of this important molecule. Here we report the detection of NO from the intracellular phago...

A spectrograph has been developed with sufficient efficiency to make high-resolution fluorescence experiments on metalloproteins possible. The resolution of this spectrometer can reach 0.45 eV at 7.1 keV emission energy. The focus images of this multiple curved-crystal array spectrometer are presented. The chemical sensitivity of Kbeta emission spectra can be used to identify chemical states, a...

Superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1) is an important metal-containing antioxidant enzyme that provides the first line of defense against toxic superoxide radicals by catalyzing their dismutation to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. SOD is classified into four metalloprotein isoforms, namely, Cu/Zn SOD, Mn SOD, Ni SOD and Fe SOD. The structural models of soybean SOD isoforms have not yet been sol...

In this work we show that it is possible to prepare and study a cobalt-substituted hemoglobin-a coboglobin (Cb).-and that this reconstituted metalloprotein exhibits reversible oxygen binding. The effect of the protein environment on Co(II)-protoporphyrin IX is directly observed by esr measurements on deoxy- and oxy-Cb and by oxygen uptake measurements, all of which may be compared with similar ...