Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Flores JF
PROVIDER: S-EPMC549462 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Flores Jason F JF Fisher Charles R CR Carney Susan L SL Green Brian N BN Freytag John K JK Schaeffer Stephen W SW Royer William E WE
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20050214 8
Key to the remarkable ability of vestimentiferan tubeworms to thrive in the harsh conditions of hydrothermal vents are hemoglobins that permit the sequestration and delivery of hydrogen sulfide and oxygen to chemoautotrophic bacteria. Here, we demonstrate that zinc ions, not free cysteine residues, bind sulfide in vestimentiferan hemoglobins. The crystal structure of the C1 hemoglobin from the hydrothermal vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila has been determined to 3.15 A and revealed the unexpected ...[more]