Li Weikai
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Trends Biochem Sci. 2016 Apr;41(4):356-370. doi: 10.1016/j.tibs.2016.01.007. Epub 2016 Feb 24.
The UbiA superfamily of intramembrane prenyltransferases catalyzes a key biosynthetic step in the production of ubiquinones, menaquinones, plastoquinones, hemes, chlorophylls, vitamin E, and structural lipids. These lipophilic compounds serve as electron and proton carriers for cellular respiration and photosynthesis, as antioxidants to reduce cell damage, and as structural components of microbial cell walls and membranes. This article reviews the biological functions and enzymatic activities of representative members of the superfamily, focusing on the remarkable recent research progress revealing that the UbiA superfamily is centrally implicated in several important physiological processes and human diseases. Because prenyltransferases in this superfamily have distinctive substrate preferences, two recent crystal structures are compared to illuminate the general mechanism for substrate recognition.
膜内异戊二烯基转移酶的UbiA超家族催化了泛醌、甲基萘醌、质体醌、血红素、叶绿素、维生素E和结构脂质生物合成中的关键步骤。这些亲脂性化合物作为细胞呼吸和光合作用的电子和质子载体,作为减少细胞损伤的抗氧化剂,以及作为微生物细胞壁和细胞膜的结构成分。本文综述了该超家族代表性成员的生物学功能和酶活性,重点介绍了最近的显著研究进展,这些进展揭示了UbiA超家族在几个重要的生理过程和人类疾病中起着核心作用。由于该超家族中的异戊二烯基转移酶具有独特的底物偏好,因此比较了最近的两个晶体结构以阐明底物识别的一般机制。