Design of a minimal di-nickel hydrogenase peptide.
SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023;
9:eabq1990. [PMID:
36897954 PMCID:
PMC10005181 DOI:
10.1126/sciadv.abq1990]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/23/2022] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Ancestral metabolic processes involve the reversible oxidation of molecular hydrogen by hydrogenase. Extant hydrogenase enzymes are complex, comprising hundreds of amino acids and multiple cofactors. We designed a 13-amino acid nickel-binding peptide capable of robustly producing molecular hydrogen from protons under a wide variety of conditions. The peptide forms a di-nickel cluster structurally analogous to a Ni-Fe cluster in [NiFe] hydrogenase and the Ni-Ni cluster in acetyl-CoA synthase, two ancient, extant proteins central to metabolism. These experimental results demonstrate that modern enzymes, despite their enormous complexity, likely evolved from simple peptide precursors on early Earth.
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