Article in press - uncorrected proof BioMol Concepts, Vol. 1 (2010), pp. 31–40 • Copyright ᮊ by Walter de Gruyter • Berlin • New York. DOI 10.1515/BMC.2010.004 Short Conceptual Overview Structure and molecular evolution of multicopper blue proteins Hirofumi Komori1,2 and Yoshiki Higuchi1,2,* containing enzymes participate in reactions involving 1 Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Life molecular oxygen. During the evolution of copper-containing Science, University of Hyogo, 3-2-1 Koto, Kamigori-cho, proteins, the number of domains in a subunit and the pattern Ako-gun, Hyogo 678-1297, Japan of subunit assembly have varied from protein to protein, 2 RIKEN SPring-8 Center, 1-1-1 Koto, Mikazuki-cho, together with point mutations. The variation appears to pro- Sayo-gun, Hyogo 679-5248, Japan mote the functional evolution of various copper-binding sites for an efficient catalysis of complex redox processes. In the * Corresponding author course of evolution, unique copper sites were created for e-mail:
[email protected] oxygen binding and electron storage. Type I copper, called blue copper, has unique spectro- scopic properties and was originally found in electron trans- Abstract fer proteins (2, 3). It has unusually high redox potential and assists electron transfer systems in photosynthesis and nitrate The multicopper blue protein family, which contains cupre- respiration (1, 4). The cupredoxin-like fold containing Type doxin-like domains as a structural unit, is one of the most I copper is found as a structural unit in numerous proteins diverse groups of proteins. This protein family is divided into and is a typical motif for the multicopper blue proteins two functionally different types of enzymes: multicopper (MCBPs).