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Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins

Structural information regarding metallothioneins (MTs) has been hard to come by due to its highly dynamic nature in the absence of metal-thiolate cluster formation and crystallization difficulties. Thus, typical spectroscopic methods for structural determination are limited in their usefulness when...

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Autores principales: Irvine, Gordon W., Stillman, Martin J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28445428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18050913
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author Irvine, Gordon W.
Stillman, Martin J.
author_facet Irvine, Gordon W.
Stillman, Martin J.
author_sort Irvine, Gordon W.
collection PubMed
description Structural information regarding metallothioneins (MTs) has been hard to come by due to its highly dynamic nature in the absence of metal-thiolate cluster formation and crystallization difficulties. Thus, typical spectroscopic methods for structural determination are limited in their usefulness when applied to MTs. Mass spectrometric methods have revolutionized our understanding of protein dynamics, structure, and folding. Recently, advances have been made in residue modification mass spectrometry in order to probe the hard-to-characterize structure of apo- and partially metalated MTs. By using different cysteine specific alkylation reagents, time dependent electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and step-wise “snapshot” ESI-MS, we are beginning to understand the dynamics of the conformers of apo-MT and related species. In this review we highlight recent papers that use these and similar techniques for structure elucidation and attempt to explain in a concise manner the data interpretations of these complex methods. We expect increasing resolution in our picture of the structural conformations of metal-free MTs as these techniques are more widely adopted and combined with other promising tools for structural elucidation.
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spelling pubmed-54548262017-06-08 Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins Irvine, Gordon W. Stillman, Martin J. Int J Mol Sci Review Structural information regarding metallothioneins (MTs) has been hard to come by due to its highly dynamic nature in the absence of metal-thiolate cluster formation and crystallization difficulties. Thus, typical spectroscopic methods for structural determination are limited in their usefulness when applied to MTs. Mass spectrometric methods have revolutionized our understanding of protein dynamics, structure, and folding. Recently, advances have been made in residue modification mass spectrometry in order to probe the hard-to-characterize structure of apo- and partially metalated MTs. By using different cysteine specific alkylation reagents, time dependent electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), and step-wise “snapshot” ESI-MS, we are beginning to understand the dynamics of the conformers of apo-MT and related species. In this review we highlight recent papers that use these and similar techniques for structure elucidation and attempt to explain in a concise manner the data interpretations of these complex methods. We expect increasing resolution in our picture of the structural conformations of metal-free MTs as these techniques are more widely adopted and combined with other promising tools for structural elucidation. MDPI 2017-04-26 /pmc/articles/PMC5454826/ /pubmed/28445428 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18050913 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Irvine, Gordon W.
Stillman, Martin J.
Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title_full Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title_fullStr Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title_full_unstemmed Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title_short Residue Modification and Mass Spectrometry for the Investigation of Structural and Metalation Properties of Metallothionein and Cysteine-Rich Proteins
title_sort residue modification and mass spectrometry for the investigation of structural and metalation properties of metallothionein and cysteine-rich proteins
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454826/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28445428
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18050913
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