Flavoproteins are

proteins Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, respo ...

that contain a

nucleic acid Nucleic acids are biopolymers, macromolecules, essential to all known forms of life. They are composed of nucleotides, which are the monomers made of three components: a 5-carbon sugar, a phosphate group and a nitrogenous base. The two main ...

derivative of

riboflavin Riboflavin, also known as vitamin B2, is a vitamin found in food and sold as a dietary supplement. It is essential to the formation of two major coenzymes, flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. These coenzymes are involved i ...

. Flavoproteins are involved in a wide array of biological processes, including removal of

radicals Radical may refer to: Politics and ideology Politics *Radical politics, the political intent of fundamental societal change *Radicalism (historical), the Radical Movement that began in late 18th century Britain and spread to continental Europe and ...

contributing to oxidative stress,

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...

, and

DNA repair DNA repair is a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as radiation can cause DNA d ...

. The flavoproteins are some of the most-studied families of enzymes. Flavoproteins have either FMN or FAD (

flavin adenine dinucleotide Flavin may refer to: Placename * Flavin, Aveyron, a commune in southern France Surname * Adrian Flavin (born 1979), a professional rugby player * Christopher Flavin, president of the Worldwatch Institute * Dan Flavin (1933–1996), a minimalis ...

) as a prosthetic group or as a cofactor. The flavin is generally tightly bound (as in adrenodoxin reductase, wherein the FAD is buried deeply). About 5-10% of flavoproteins have a covalently linked FAD. Based on the available structural data, FAD-binding sites can be divided into more than 200 different types. 90 flavoproteins are encoded in the human genome; about 84% require FAD, and around 16% require FMN, whereas 5 proteins require both. Flavoproteins are mainly located in the

mitochondria A mitochondrion (; ) is an organelle found in the cells of most Eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used ...

. Of all flavoproteins, 90% perform redox reactions and the other 10% are transferases,

lyases In biochemistry, a lyase is an enzyme that catalyzes the breaking (an elimination reaction) of various chemical bonds by means other than hydrolysis (a substitution reaction) and oxidation, often forming a new double bond or a new ring structu ...

, isomerases,

ligases In biochemistry, a ligase is an enzyme that can catalyze the joining ( ligation) of two large molecules by forming a new chemical bond. This is typically via hydrolysis of a small pendant chemical group on one of the larger molecules or the enzy ...

Discovery

Flavoproteins were first mentioned in 1879, when they isolated as a bright-yellow

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compou ...

from cow's milk. They were initially termed ''lactochrome''. By the early 1930s, this same pigment had been isolated from a range of sources, and recognised as a component of the vitamin B complex. Its structure was determined and reported in 1935 and given the name

, derived from the ribityl side chain and yellow colour of the conjugated ring system. The first evidence for the requirement of flavin as an

enzyme Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products ...

cofactor came in 1935.

Hugo Theorell Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell (6 July 1903 – 15 August 1982) was a Swedish scientist and Nobel Prize laureate in medicine. He was born in Linköping as the son of Thure Theorell and his wife Armida Bill. Theorell went to Secondary School at Kat ...

and coworkers showed that a bright-yellow-coloured

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

, identified previously as essential for

cellular respiration Cellular respiration is the process by which biological fuels are oxidised in the presence of an inorganic electron acceptor such as oxygen to produce large amounts of energy, to drive the bulk production of ATP. Cellular respiration may be des ...

, could be separated into apoprotein and a bright-yellow pigment. Neither apoprotein nor pigment alone could catalyse the

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or ...

of NADH, but mixing of the two restored the enzyme activity. However, replacing the isolated pigment with riboflavin did not restore enzyme activity, despite their being indistinguishable under

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter ...

. This led to the discovery that the protein studied required not riboflavin but

flavin mononucleotide Flavin mononucleotide (FMN), or riboflavin-5′-phosphate, is a biomolecule produced from riboflavin (vitamin B2) by the enzyme riboflavin kinase and functions as the prosthetic group of various oxidoreductases, including NADH dehydrogenase, as we ...

to be catalytically active. Similar experiments with D-amino acid oxidase led to the identification of

(FAD) as a second form of flavin utilised by enzymes.

Examples

The flavoprotein family contains a diverse range of enzymes, including: * Adrenodoxin reductase that is involved in steroid hormone synthesis in vertebrate species, and has a ubiquitous distribution in metazoa and prokaryotes. * Cytochrome P450 reductase that is a redox partner of cytochrome P450 proteins located in endoplasmic reticulum. *Epidermin

biosynthesis Biosynthesis is a multi-step, enzyme-catalyzed process where substrates are converted into more complex products in living organisms. In biosynthesis, simple compounds are modified, converted into other compounds, or joined to form macromolecul ...

protein, EpiD, which has been shown to be a flavoprotein that

bind BIND () is a suite of software for interacting with the Domain Name System (DNS). Its most prominent component, named (pronounced ''name-dee'': , short for ''name daemon''), performs both of the main DNS server roles, acting as an authoritative ...

s FMN. This

catalyses the removal of two reducing equivalents from the

cysteine Cysteine (symbol Cys or C; ) is a semiessential proteinogenic amino acid with the formula . The thiol side chain in cysteine often participates in enzymatic reactions as a nucleophile. When present as a deprotonated catalytic residue, some ...

residue of the C-terminal meso- lanthionine of epidermin to form a --C

C-- double bond. *The B chain of dipicolinate synthase, an enzyme which catalyses the formation of dipicolinic acid from dihydroxydipicolinic acid. *Phenylacrylic acid decarboxylase , and enzyme which confers resistance to

cinnamic acid Cinnamic acid is an organic compound with the formula C6H5-CH=CH- COOH. It is a white crystalline compound that is slightly soluble in water, and freely soluble in many organic solvents. Classified as an unsaturated carboxylic acid, it occurs na ...

References

External links

* The menu "science" of the progra
STRAP
provides A comprehensive collection of all flavo-proteins with known 3D-structure. It compares the protein structures to elucidate phylogenetic relationships. {{InterPro content, IPR003382 Protein families Proteins

Discovery

Examples

See also

References

External links