Abstract
The flavin isoalloxazine ring in electron transferases functions in a redox capacity, being able to take up electrons from a donor to subsequently deliver them to an acceptor. The main characteristics of these flavoproteins, including their unique ability to mediate obligatory processes of two-electron transfers with those involving single-electron transfer, are here described. To illustrate the versatility of these proteins, the acquired knowledge of the function of the two electron transferases involved in the cyanobacterial photosynthetic electron transfer from photosystem I to NADP+ is presented. Many aspects of their biochemistry and biophysics have been extensively characterized using site-directed mutagenesis, steady-state and transient kinetics, spectroscopy, calorimetry, X-ray crystallography, electron paramagnetic resonance, and computational methods.
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This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, Grant BIO2010-1493.
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Ferreira, P., Martínez-Júlvez, M., Medina, M. (2014). Electron Transferases. In: Weber, S., Schleicher, E. (eds) Flavins and Flavoproteins. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1146. Humana Press, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0452-5_5
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