Structural Characterization of Heme-mediated Signaling Mechanism in Protein Regulation System

在本研究项目中，我们表征了铁反应调节因子（Irr）和铁调节蛋白（IRP）中的血红素结合，并研究了它们的功能意义。我们光谱鉴定的血红素结合位点的Irr，并根据结构信息，血红素诱导的氧化修饰的分子机制，Irr提出。还确定了IRP的血红素结合位点，并提出了IRP中通过血红素结合进行翻译调控的新机制。本研究项目中的这些新发现为血红素在体内的功能意义提供了新的线索。

In this research project, we characterized the heme binding in Iron Response Regulator (Irr) and Iron Regulatory Protein (IRP) and examined their functional significance. We spectroscopically identified the heme binding sites of Irr and, based on the structural information, a molecular mechanism of heme-induced oxidative modification in Irr was proposed. The heme binding sites of IRP were also determined and a new mechanism for the translational regulation by binding of heme was suggested in IRP. These new findings in this research project shed new light on the functional significance of heme in vivo.