In molecular biology, multicopper oxidases are enzymes which oxidise their substrate by accepting electrons at a mononuclear copper centre and transferring them to a trinuclear copper centre; dioxygenbinds to the trinuclear centre and, following the transfer of four electrons, is reduced to two molecules of water.[1] There are three spectroscopically different copper centres found in multicopper oxidases: type 1 (or blue), type 2 (or normal) and type 3 (or coupled binuclear).[2][3] Multicopper oxidases consist of 2, 3 or 6 of these homologous domains, which also share homology with the cupredoxins azurin and plastocyanin. Structurally, these domains consist of a cupredoxin-like fold, a beta-sandwich consisting of 7 strands in 2 beta-sheets, arranged in a Greek-key beta-barrel.[4]
The family of multicopper oxidases can be divided into three groups based on the electron-donating substrate. [5] Laccases oxidize a variety of organic substrates, metalloxidases accept metal substrates and a third group contains multicopper oxidases that are specific towards one single substrate. Multicopper oxidases include:
^Ouzounis C, Sander C (February 1991). "A structure-derived sequence pattern for the detection of type I copper binding domains in distantly related proteins". FEBS Lett. 279 (1): 73–8. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(91)80254-Z. PMID1995346. S2CID10299194.
^Suzuki S, Kataoka K, Yamaguchi K (October 2000). "Metal coordination and mechanism of multicopper nitrite reductase". Acc. Chem. Res. 33 (10): 728–35. doi:10.1021/ar9900257. PMID11041837.
^Mann KG, Jenny RJ, Krishnaswamy S (1988). "Cofactor proteins in the assembly and expression of blood clotting enzyme complexes". Annu. Rev. Biochem. 57: 915–56. doi:10.1146/annurev.bi.57.070188.004411. PMID3052293.
^Askwith C, Eide D, Van Ho A, Bernard PS, Li L, Davis-Kaplan S, Sipe DM, Kaplan J (January 1994). "The FET3 gene of S. cerevisiae encodes a multicopper oxidase required for ferrous iron uptake". Cell. 76 (2): 403–10. doi:10.1016/0092-8674(94)90346-8. PMID8293473. S2CID27473253.