Preliminary time-of-flight neutron diffraction study of human deoxyhemoglobin

A. Y. Kovalevsky, T. Chatake, N. Shibayama, S. Y. Park, T. Ishikawa, M. Mustyakimov, S. Z. Fisher, P. Langan, Y. Morimoto

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Human hemoglobin (HbA) is an intricate system that has evolved to efficiently transport oxygen molecules (O2) from lung to tissue. Its quaternary structure can fluctuate between two conformations, T (tense or deoxy) and R (relaxed or oxy), which have low and high affinity for O2, respectively. The binding of O2 to the heme sites of HbA is regulated by protons and by inorganic anions. In order to investigate the role of the protonation states of protein residues in O2 binding, large crystals of deoxy HbA (∼20 mm3) were grown in D2O under anaerobic conditions for neutron diffraction studies. A time-of-flight neutron data set was collected to 1.8 Å resolution on the Protein Crystallography Station (PCS) at the spallation source run by Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE). The HbA tetramer (64.6 kDa; 574 residues excluding the four heme groups) occupies the largest asymmetric unit (space group P21) from which a high-resolution neutron data set has been collected to date.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)270-273
Number of pages4
JournalActa Crystallographica Section F: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications
Volume64
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 29 2008
Externally publishedYes

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Institute of General Medical SciencesR01GM071939

    Keywords

    • Deoxyhemoglobin
    • Neutron diffraction

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Preliminary time-of-flight neutron diffraction study of human deoxyhemoglobin'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this