Structural studies of the yeast type II NADH:quinone oxidoreductase NDI-1

膜蛋白执行一系列惊人的生物功能，包括呼吸，信号转导和分子运输。各种基因组计划的结果表明，真核细胞编码的蛋白质中高达30%是膜蛋白。对膜蛋白结构-功能关系的更基本的理解将对结构生物学、药理学和医学做出宝贵的贡献。最近，我们获得了酵母膜蛋白NDI-1的衍射良好的晶体。这种酶是哺乳动物蛋白的同源物，是酵母呼吸所必需的酶。该膜蛋白的结构信息将为了解该呼吸膜蛋白提供重要的信息，特别是其底物（NADH和辅酶Q10）和辅因子（FAD）结合位点。这种结构在医学上也很重要，因为它可以用于人类遗传疾病的基因治疗。

Membrane proteins perform a staggering range of biological functions including respiration, signal transduction and molecular transport. The results of various genome projects have shown that up to 30 % of proteins encoded by eukaryotic cells are membrane proteins. A more fundamental understanding of the structure-function relationships of membrane proteins would make invaluable contributions to structural biology, pharmacology and medicine. Recently, we have obtained well-diffracting crystals of a yeast membrane protein NDI-1. This enzyme is a homologue of the mammalian protein and is an essential enzyme for yeast respiration. Structural information for this membrane protein will provide important insights into this respiratory membrane protein, particularly on its substrate (NADH and coenzyme Q10) and cofactor (FAD) binding sites. The structure is also medically important as it can be used for gene therapy of human genetic diseases.