cofactor
(noun)
A substance, especially a coenzyme or a metal, that must be present for an enzyme to function.
Examples of cofactor in the following topics:
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Cofactors and Energy Transitions
- Cofactors are either organic or inorganic.
- An inactive enzyme without the cofactor is called an apoenzyme, while the complete enzyme with cofactor is the holoenzyme.
- Some enzymes or enzyme complexes require several cofactors.
- Organic cofactors are often vitamins or are made from vitamins.
- Cofactors can be divided into two broad groups: organic cofactors, such as flavin or heme, and inorganic cofactors, such as the metal ions Mg2+, Cu+, Mn2+, or iron-sulfur clusters.
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Nanoarchaeum and Aciduliprofundum
- N. equitans genome consists of a single circular chromosome, and lacks almost all genes required for synthesis of amino acids, nucleotides, cofactors, and lipids, but encodes everything needed for repair and replication. 95% of its DNA encodes for proteins for stable RNA molecules.
- Nanoarchaeum cannot synthesize most nucleotides, amino acids, lipids, and cofactors.
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Iron-Binding Proteins
- They are carrier proteins (those used to move ions and molecules across membranes) and more generally metalloproteins (those which contain a metal ion cofactor).
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Gene Inversion
- For this to occur, there is typically one or more cofactors (to name a few: DNA-binding proteins and the presence or absence of DNA binding sites) and a site specific recombinase.
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Nitrogenase and Nitrogen Fixation
- All nitrogenases have an iron- and sulfur-containing cofactor that includes a heterometal complex in the active site (e.g., FeMoCo).
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Regulation of Sigma Factor Translation
- The regulation of expression of sigma factors occurs at transcriptional, translational, and post-translational levels as dictated by the cellular environment and the presence or absence of numerous cofactors.
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Biosynthesis and Energy
- Biosynthetic building blocks utilized by organisms include amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, lipids, sugars, and enzyme cofactors.
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Nitrogen Fixation Mechanism
- Component I known as MoFe protein or nitrogenase contains 2 Mo atoms, 28 to 34 Fe atoms, and 26 to 28 acid-labile sulfides, also known as a iron-molybdenum cofactor (FeMoco).
- C) Electrons are further shuttled to the iron-molybdenum cofactor (FeMoco), and ATP is hydrolised to ADP.
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Oxidoreductase Protein Complexes
- This group of enzymes usually utilizes NADP or NAD+ as cofactors.
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Anaerobiosis and N2 Fixation
- Due to the oxidation carried out by oxygen, most nitrogenases, which are essential large reduction complexes are irreversibly inhibited by O2, which degradatively oxidizes the Fe-S cofactors.