Outputs (20)

Two Distinct Thermodynamic Gradients for Cellular Metalation of Vitamin B12 (2023)
Journal Article

The acquisition of CoII by the corrin component of vitamin B12 follows one of two distinct pathways, referred to as early or late CoII insertion. The late insertion pathway exploits a CoII metallochaperone (CobW) from the COG0523 family of G3E GTPase... Read More about Two Distinct Thermodynamic Gradients for Cellular Metalation of Vitamin B12.

Protein metalation in a nutshell (2022)
Journal Article

Metalation, the acquisition of metals by proteins, must avoid mis-metalation with tighter binding metals. This is illustrated by four selected proteins that require different metals: all show similar ranked orders of affinity for bioavailable metals,... Read More about Protein metalation in a nutshell.

Metalation calculators for E. coli strain JM109 (DE3): Aerobic, anaerobic and hydrogen peroxide exposed cells cultured in LB media (2022)
Journal Article

Three Web-based calculators, and three analogous spreadsheets, have been generated that predict in vivo metal occupancies of proteins based on known metal affinities. The calculations exploit estimates of the availabilities of the labile buffered poo... Read More about Metalation calculators for E. coli strain JM109 (DE3): Aerobic, anaerobic and hydrogen peroxide exposed cells cultured in LB media.

Protein metalation in biology (2021)
Journal Article

Inorganic metals supplement the chemical repertoire of organic molecules, especially proteins. This requires the correct metals to associate with proteins at metalation. Protein mismetalation typically occurs when excesses of unbound metals compete f... Read More about Protein metalation in biology.

Calculating metalation in cells reveals CobW acquires Co(II) for vitamin B12 biosynthesis while related proteins prefer Zn(II) (2021)
Journal Article

Protein metal-occupancy (metalation) in vivo has been elusive. To address this challenge, the available free energies of metals have recently been determined from the responses of metal sensors. Here, we use these free energy values to develop a meta... Read More about Calculating metalation in cells reveals CobW acquires Co(II) for vitamin B12 biosynthesis while related proteins prefer Zn(II).

Metalation: nature’s challenge in bioinorganic chemistry (2020)
Journal Article

The association of proteins with metals, metalation, is challenging because the tightest binding metals are rarely the correct ones. Inside cells, correct metalation is enabled by controlled bioavailability plus extra mechanisms for tricky combinatio... Read More about Metalation: nature’s challenge in bioinorganic chemistry.

Bacterial sensors define intracellular free energies for correct enzyme metalation (2019)
Journal Article

There is a challenge for metalloenzymes to acquire their correct metals because some inorganic elements form more stable complexes with proteins than do others. These preferences can be overcome provided some metals are more available than others. Ho... Read More about Bacterial sensors define intracellular free energies for correct enzyme metalation.

A unique ferredoxin acts as a player in the low-iron response of photosynthetic organisms (2018)
Journal Article

Iron chronically limits aquatic photosynthesis, especially in marine environments, and the correct perception and maintenance of iron homeostasis in photosynthetic bacteria, including cyanobacteria, is therefore of global significance. Multiple adapt... Read More about A unique ferredoxin acts as a player in the low-iron response of photosynthetic organisms.

Fine control of metal concentrations is necessary for cells to discern zinc from cobalt (2017)
Journal Article

Bacteria possess transcription factors whose DNA-binding activity is altered upon binding to specific metals, but metal binding is not specific in vitro. Here we show that tight regulation of buffered intracellular metal concentrations is a prerequis... Read More about Fine control of metal concentrations is necessary for cells to discern zinc from cobalt.

A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells (2017)
Journal Article
Foster, A., Pernil, R., Patterson, C., Scott, A., Pålsson, L., Pal, R., …Robinson, N. (2017). A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells. Nature Chemical Biology, 13(4), 409-414. https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio.2310

The metal affinities of metal-sensing transcriptional regulators co-vary with cellular metal concentrations over more than 12 orders of magnitude. To understand the cause of this relationship, we determined the structure of the Ni(II) sensor InrS and... Read More about A tight tunable range for Ni(II) sensing and buffering in cells.

The Effectors and Sensory Sites of Formaldehyde-Responsive Regulator FrmR and Metal-Sensing Variant (2016)
Journal Article
Osman, D., Piergentili, C., Chen, J., Sayer, L., Usón, I., Huggins, T., …Pohl, E. (2016). The Effectors and Sensory Sites of Formaldehyde-Responsive Regulator FrmR and Metal-Sensing Variant. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291(37), 19502-19516. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m116.745174

The DUF156 family of DNA-binding, transcriptional-regulators include metal-sensors which respond to cobalt and/or nickel (RcnR, InrS) or copper (CsoR), plus CstR which responds to persulfide, and formaldehyde-responsive FrmR. Unexpectedly, the allost... Read More about The Effectors and Sensory Sites of Formaldehyde-Responsive Regulator FrmR and Metal-Sensing Variant.

Trans-oligomerization of duplicated aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases maintains genetic code fidelity under stress (2015)
Journal Article
Rubio, M., Napolitano, M., Ochoa de Alda, J., Santamaría-Gómez, J., Patterson, C., Foster, A., …Luque, I. (2015). Trans-oligomerization of duplicated aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases maintains genetic code fidelity under stress. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(20), 9905-9917. https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkv1020

Aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (aaRSs) play a key role in deciphering the genetic message by producing charged tRNAs and are equipped with proofreading mechanisms to ensure correct pairing of tRNAs with their cognate amino acid. Duplicated aaRSs are very... Read More about Trans-oligomerization of duplicated aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases maintains genetic code fidelity under stress.

Generating a metal-responsive transcriptional regulator to test what confers metal-sensing in cells (2015)
Journal Article
Osman, D., Piergentili, C., Chen, J., Chakrabarti, B., Foster, A., Lurie-Luke, E., …Robinson, N. (2015). Generating a metal-responsive transcriptional regulator to test what confers metal-sensing in cells. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 290(32), 19806-19822. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m115.663427

FrmR from Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (a CsoR/RcnR-like transcriptional de-repressor) is shown to repress the frmRA operator-promoter, and repression is alleviated by formaldehyde but not manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, or Zn(II)... Read More about Generating a metal-responsive transcriptional regulator to test what confers metal-sensing in cells.

Metal Preferences and Metallation (2014)
Journal Article
Foster, A. W., Osman, D., & Robinson, N. J. (2014). Metal Preferences and Metallation. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289(41), 28095-28103. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.r114.588145

The metal-binding preferences of most metalloproteins do not match their metal-requirements. Thus, metallation of an estimated 30% of metalloenzymes is aided by metal-delivery systems, with ~25% acquiring pre-assembled metal-cofactors. The remaining... Read More about Metal Preferences and Metallation.

A chemical potentiator of copper-accumulation used to investigate the iron-regulons of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (2014)
Journal Article
Foster, A. W., Dainty, S. J., Patterson, C. J., Pohl, E., Blackburn, H., Wilson, C., …Robinson, N. J. (2014). A chemical potentiator of copper-accumulation used to investigate the iron-regulons of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Molecular Microbiology, 93(2), 317-330. https://doi.org/10.1111/mmi.12661

The extreme resistance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to copper is overcome by 2-(6-benzyl-2-pyridyl)quinazoline (BPQ), providing a chemical-biology tool which has been exploited in two lines of discovery. First, BPQ is shown to form a red (BPQ)2Cu(I) c... Read More about A chemical potentiator of copper-accumulation used to investigate the iron-regulons of Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Metal specificity of cyanobacterial nickel-responsive repressor InrS: cells maintain zinc and copper below the detection threshold for InrS (2014)
Journal Article
Foster, A., Pernil, R., Patterson, C., & Robinson, N. (2014). Metal specificity of cyanobacterial nickel-responsive repressor InrS: cells maintain zinc and copper below the detection threshold for InrS. Molecular Microbiology, 92(4), 797-812. https://doi.org/10.1111/mmi.12594

InrS is a Ni(II)-responsive, CsoR/RcnR-like, DNA-binding transcriptional repressor of the nrsD gene, but the Ni(II) co-ordination sphere of InrS is unlike Ni(II)-RcnR. We show that copper and Zn(II) also bind tightly to InrS and in vitro these ions a... Read More about Metal specificity of cyanobacterial nickel-responsive repressor InrS: cells maintain zinc and copper below the detection threshold for InrS.

Cyanobacterial metallochaperone inhibits deleterious side reactions of copper (2012)
Journal Article
Tottey, S., Patterson, C., Banci, L., Bertini, I., Felli, I., Pavelkova, A., …Robinson, N. (2012). Cyanobacterial metallochaperone inhibits deleterious side reactions of copper. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(1), 95-100. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117515109

A cytosolic Ni(II) sensor in cyanobacterium: Nickel-detection follows nickel-affinity across four families of metal-sensors (2012)
Journal Article
Foster, A., Patterson, C., Pernil, R., Hess, C., & Robinson, N. (2012). A cytosolic Ni(II) sensor in cyanobacterium: Nickel-detection follows nickel-affinity across four families of metal-sensors. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 287(15), 12142-12151. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m111.338301

Efflux of surplus Ni(II) across the outer and inner membranes of Synechocystis PCC 6803 is mediated by the Nrs system under the control of a sensor of periplasmic Ni(II), NrsS. Here, we show that the product of ORF sll0176, which encodes a CsoR/RcnR-... Read More about A cytosolic Ni(II) sensor in cyanobacterium: Nickel-detection follows nickel-affinity across four families of metal-sensors.

Structure and metal loading of a soluble periplasm cuproprotein (2010)
Journal Article
Waldron, K., Firbank, S., Dainty, S., Perez-Rama, M., Tottey, S., & Robinson, N. (2010). Structure and metal loading of a soluble periplasm cuproprotein. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285(42), 32504-32511. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.m110.153080

Protein-folding location can regulate manganese-binding versus copper- or zinc-binding (2008)
Journal Article
Tottey, S., Waldron, K., Firbank, S., Reale, C., Bessant, C., Sato, K., …Robinson, N. (2008). Protein-folding location can regulate manganese-binding versus copper- or zinc-binding. Nature, 455(7216), 1138-1142. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07340