Part:BBa_K3275000

Arsenic metallothionein

Human arsenic targeting metallothionein

Sequence and Features

Assembly Compatibility:

• 10
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[10]
• 12
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[12]
• 21
  INCOMPATIBLE WITH RFC[21]

  Illegal BamHI site found at 3
  
• 23
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[23]
• 25
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[25]
• 1000
  COMPATIBLE WITH RFC[1000]

Introduction

Metallothionein (MT) is a class of small metal-binding proteins that exists in bacteria, plants and animals. These proteins depending on their amino acid compositions have a high binding affinity with different bivalent metal ions. Once MT detects the corresponding metal, it binds the goal through covalent bonds, which are composed of sulfhydryl cysteine residues and stores the metal by tightly chelating the metal. Typically, it is assumed that MTs have two binding domains, one of which is the C-terminal part (α-domain) with three binding sites. The other one is the N-terminal part (β-domain) with four divalent binding sites . Therefore, MTs are important for protecting the cell against heavy metal toxicity and maintaining cellular homeostasis.

References

Ngu, T. and Stillman, M. (2006). Arsenic Binding to Human Metallothionein. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 128(38), pp.12473-12483.