Publication Abstract from PubMed
alpha-Amylases are essential enzymes in alpha-glucan metabolism and catalyse the hydrolysis of long sugar polymers such as amylose and starch. The crystal structure of a previously unidentified amylase (AmyC) from the hyperthermophilic organism Thermotoga maritima was determined at 2.2 Angstroms resolution by means of MAD. AmyC lacks sequence similarity to canonical alpha-amylases, which belong to glycosyl hydrolase families 13, 70 and 77, but exhibits significant similarity to a group of as yet uncharacterized proteins in COG1543 and is related to glycerol hydrolase family 57 (GH-57). AmyC reveals features that are characteristic of alpha-amylases, such as a distorted TIM-barrel structure formed by seven beta-strands and alpha-helices (domain A), and two additional but less well conserved domains. The latter are domain B, which contains three helices inserted in the TIM-barrel after beta-sheet 2, and domain C, a five-helix region at the C-terminus. Interestingly, despite moderate sequence homology, structure comparison revealed significant similarities to a member of GH-57 with known three-dimensional structure, Thermococcus litoralis 4-glucanotransferase, and an even higher similarity to a structure of an enzyme of unknown function from Thermus thermophilus.
Structure of the novel alpha-amylase AmyC from Thermotoga maritima.,Dickmanns A, Ballschmiter M, Liebl W, Ficner R Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2006 Mar;62(Pt 3):262-70. Epub 2006, Feb 22. PMID:16510973[1]
From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
