1 Is glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase a central redox mediator? 2 Grace Russell, David Veal, John T. Hancock* 3 Department of Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, 4 UK. 5 *Correspondence: 6 Prof. John T. Hancock 7 Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, 8 University of the West of England, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK. 9
[email protected] 10 11 SHORT TITLE | Redox and GAPDH 12 13 ABSTRACT 14 D-Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) is an immensely important 15 enzyme carrying out a vital step in glycolysis and is found in all living organisms. 16 Although there are several isoforms identified in many species, it is now recognized 17 that cytosolic GAPDH has numerous moonlighting roles and is found in a variety of 18 intracellular locations, but also is associated with external membranes and the 19 extracellular environment. The switch of GAPDH function, from what would be 20 considered as its main metabolic role, to its alternate activities, is often under the 21 influence of redox active compounds. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as 22 hydrogen peroxide, along with reactive nitrogen species (RNS), such as nitric oxide, 23 are produced by a variety of mechanisms in cells, including from metabolic 24 processes, with their accumulation in cells being dramatically increased under stress 25 conditions. Overall, such reactive compounds contribute to the redox signaling of the 26 cell. Commonly redox signaling leads to post-translational modification of proteins, 27 often on the thiol groups of cysteine residues. In GAPDH the active site cysteine can 28 be modified in a variety of ways, but of pertinence, can be altered by both ROS and 29 RNS, as well as hydrogen sulfide and glutathione.