Pyruvate Decarboxylase - Structure

Structure

Pyruvate decarboxylase occurs as a dimer of dimers with two active sites shared between the monomers of each dimer. The enzyme contains a beta-alpha-beta structure, yielding parallel beta-sheets. It contains 563 residue subunits in each dimer; the enzyme has strong intermonomer attractions, but the dimers loosely interact to form a loose tetramer.

Crystallographic structures of pyruvate decarboxylase
Cartoon diagram of pyruvate decarboxylase monomer with TPP attached.
Cartoon diagram of pyruvate decarboxylase tetramer.
Active site of pyruvate decarboxylase with selected amino acids: Glu-51, Glu-477, Asp-444, and Asp-28. Also displayed are cofactors TPP and Mg2+.
Positions of His and Cys residues in respect to active site (TPP and Mg) that participate in conformation changes when interacting with pyruvate substrate.

Read more about this topic:  Pyruvate Decarboxylase

Famous quotes containing the word structure:

    “... the structure of a page of good prose is, analyzed logically, not something frozen but the vibrating of a bridge, which changes with every step one takes on it.”
    —Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    “... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
    —Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)

    “I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions.”
    —Václav Havel (b. 1936)