Journal article
Phenol stabilizes more helix in a new symmetrical zinc insulin hexamer
Nature (London), Vol.338(6216), pp.594-596
04/13/1989
DOI: 10.1038/338594a0
PMID: 2648161
Abstract
SINCE insulin was first shown by Scott1 to crystallize in the presence of zinc ions in 1934, a variety of Zn-containing insulin crystals have been grown2,3. The structures of insulin in the related rhombohedral crystals of 2Zn-insulin and 4Zn-insulin have been solved4,5 and reveal that the molecule is a hexamer, organized as three dimers, each containing a 2-fold symmetry axis and held together by Zn ions. In 2Zn-insulin the hexamer is nearly sym-metrical with the two axial Zn ions and the two molecules of the dimer related closely by a local 2-fold axis. But in 4Zn-insulin the two molecules in the dimer differ remarkably, creating an asymmetric 4Zn-hexamer in which one trimer is essentially equivalent to that in 2Zn-insulin and the other is different by virtue of an additional stretch of N-terminal helix between residues Bl and B8 (refs 6, 7). We report here the structure of a new sym-metrical hexamer, in which all six molecules have the B1–B8 helix seen in 4Zn-insulin. Phenol molecules, found bonding specifi-cally to each molecule, evidently stabilize this new helical conformation.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Phenol stabilizes more helix in a new symmetrical zinc insulin hexamer
- Creators
- U Derewenda - University of YorkZ Derewenda - University of YorkE. J Dodson - University of YorkG. G Dodson - University of YorkC. D Reynolds - Liverpool CollegeG. D Smith - The Medical FoundationC Sparks - Liverpool CollegeD Swenson - The Medical Foundation
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nature (London), Vol.338(6216), pp.594-596
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing
- DOI
- 10.1038/338594a0
- PMID
- 2648161
- ISSN
- 0028-0836
- eISSN
- 1476-4687
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/13/1989
- Academic Unit
- Chemistry
- Record Identifier
- 9984622047102771
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