Crystallization and preliminary crystallographic characterization of LmACR2, an arsenate/antimonate reductase from Leishmania major

Acta Crystallogr Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2006 Oct 1;62(Pt 10):976-9. doi: 10.1107/S1744309106033537. Epub 2006 Sep 19.

Abstract

Arsenic is present in the biosphere owing either to the presence of pesticides and herbicides used in agricultural and industrial activities or to leaching from geological formations. The health effects of prolonged exposure to arsenic can be devastating and may lead to various forms of cancer. Antimony(V), which is chemically very similar to arsenic, is used instead in the treatment of leishmaniasis, an infection caused by the protozoan parasite Leishmania sp.; the reduction of pentavalent antimony contained in the drug Pentostam to the active trivalent form arises from the presence in the Leishmania genome of a gene, LmACR2, coding for the protein LmACR2 (14.5 kDa, 127 amino acids) that displays weak but significant sequence similarity to the catalytic domain of Cdc25 phosphatase and to rhodanese enzymes. For structural characterization, LmACR2 was overexpressed, purified to homogeneity and crystallized in a trigonal space group (P321 or P3(1)21/P3(2)21). The protein crystallized in two distinct trigonal crystal forms, with unit-cell parameters a = b = 111.0, c = 86.1 A and a = b = 111.0, c = 175.6 A, respectively. At a synchrotron beamline, the diffraction pattern extended to a resolution limit of 1.99 A.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Antimony / chemistry
  • Antimony / metabolism
  • Arsenite Transporting ATPases
  • Cloning, Molecular
  • Crystallization
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Ion Pumps / chemistry*
  • Ion Pumps / genetics
  • Ion Pumps / isolation & purification
  • Leishmania major / chemistry
  • Leishmania major / enzymology*
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Multienzyme Complexes / chemistry*
  • Multienzyme Complexes / genetics
  • Multienzyme Complexes / isolation & purification
  • Sequence Alignment

Substances

  • Ion Pumps
  • Multienzyme Complexes
  • Antimony
  • Arsenite Transporting ATPases