[2013.5.21] Prof. Yingang Feng published a paper "Structural insights into the N-terminal GIY-YIG endonuclease activity of Arabidopsis glutaredoxin AtGRXS16 in chloroplasts" onProc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, which reported a research collaborated with researchers from Tsinghua University, Baylor College of Medicine (USA), and Zhejiang Normal University.
The paper reported the structural and functional studies of a plant chloroplastic glutaredoxin AtGRXS16. Glutaredoxins (Grx) widely exist in various organisms and play important roles in maintaining the redox potential in cells. Plants often have.dozens of Grx isoforms which are localized in different organelle and perhaps have different functions and regulations, but the structure, fucntion and regulation of many Grx isoforms are still not clear. This paper studied an Arobidopsis Grx AtGRXS16 in chloroplasts using strcutural biology, biochemistry and yeast function complementation experiments. The study revealed that AtGRXS16 possesses a functional GIY-YIG nuclease at its N-teminal domain and a functional CGFS-type Grx at its C-terminal domain, while the functions of both domains were regulated by an intramolecular disulfide bond. This disulfide bond can simultaneously inhibit the activity of the N-terminal and C-terminal domains, while the activity of both domains could be restored under reduced condition. These findings unravel a novel manner of regulation for Grxs and provide insights into the mechanistic link between redox regulation and DNA metabolism in chloroplasts.
Prof. Yingang Feng, together with Prof. Xinquan Wang from Tsinghua University and Prof. Ninghui Cheng from Baylor College of Medicine (USA), is the corresponding author. Prof. Feng's research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
NCBI PubMed
Xi Liu, Shian Liu,Yingang Feng*, Jian-Zhong Liu, Yuling Chen, Khanh Pham, Haiteng Deng, Kendal D. Hirschi, Xinquan Wang*, and Ninghui Cheng* (2013) Structural insights into the N-terminal GIY-YIG endonuclease activity ofArabidopsisglutaredoxin AtGRXS16 in chloroplasts.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA110(23), 9565-9570. [Full text (Publisher website)]
