Hentze M W, Argos P
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, FRG.
Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Apr 25;19(8):1739-40. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.8.1739.
Iron-responsive elements (IREs) are regulatory RNA elements which serve as specific binding sites for the IRE-binding protein (IRE-BP). Interaction between IREs and IRE-BP induces repression of ferritin mRNA translation and transferrin receptor mRNA stabilization. We describe the identification of extensive amino acid sequence homology between IRE-BP and two known isomerases, aconitase and isopropylmalate (IPM) isomerase. We discuss the implications of this observation with regard to structure/function relationships of IRE-BP. The structural conservation between a regulatory RNA-binding protein and two enzymes involved in intermediary metabolism provides a surprising example of the functional flexibility in biological structures.
铁反应元件(IREs)是一种调节性RNA元件,作为铁反应元件结合蛋白(IRE-BP)的特异性结合位点。IREs与IRE-BP之间的相互作用可诱导铁蛋白mRNA翻译的抑制和转铁蛋白受体mRNA的稳定。我们描述了IRE-BP与两种已知的异构酶——乌头酸酶和异丙基苹果酸(IPM)异构酶之间广泛的氨基酸序列同源性的鉴定。我们讨论了这一观察结果对IRE-BP结构/功能关系的影响。一种调节性RNA结合蛋白与两种参与中间代谢的酶之间的结构保守性为生物结构中的功能灵活性提供了一个惊人的例子。