Vitreoscilla haemoglobin (VHb) is a type of haemoglobin found in the Gram-negative aerobic bacterium, Vitreoscilla . It is the first haemoglobin discovered from bacteria, but unlike classic haemoglobin it is composed only of a single globin molecule. [1] Like typical haemoglobin, its primary role is binding oxygen, but it also performs other functions including delivery of oxygen to oxygenases, detoxification of nitric oxide, sensing and relaying oxygen concentrations, peroxidase-like activity by eliminating autoxidation-derived H2O2 that prevents haeme degradation and iron release. [2]
In 1986, a bacterial (Vitreoscilla) heme protein that had been studied by Webster and his colleagues, was sequenced and this amino acid sequence exhibited the globin folds of a haemoglobin. [3] [4] It consists of a single domain which normally occurs as a dimer. The solution of its crystal structure confirmed that its 3-dimensional structure is remarkably similar to the classic globin fold. [5] When the gene (vgb) for this haemoglobin was cloned into E. coli [6] it was found that it increased the growth of these cells under low oxygen conditions compared to control bacteria. [7] The concentration of VHb drastically increased in Vitreoscilla, a strict aerobe, grown under hypoxic conditions, [8] and it was proposed that it acted as an "oxygen storage trap" to feed oxygen to the terminal oxidase (cytochrome bo) under these conditions. [9] Further evidence for this is that VHb is concentrated in vivo near the membrane of Vitreoscilla cells. [10] It was also shown that VHb binds to subunit I of the cytochrome bo terminal oxidase, [11] the heme-containing subunit that is also responsible for the unique sodium pumping function of this unique terminal oxidase. [12]
VHb is the best understood of all the bacterial haemoglobins, and is attributed to play a number of functions. Its main role is likely the binding of oxygen at low concentrations and its direct delivery to the terminal respiratory oxidase(s) such as cytochrome o. It is also involved in the delivery of oxygen to oxygenases, [13] detoxification of nitric oxide by converting it to nitrate, [14] and sensing oxygen concentrations and passing this signal to transcription factors. [15] [16] It has a peroxidase-like activity and effectively eliminates autoxidation-derived H2O2, which is a cause of haeme degradation and iron release. [2]
The VHb gene, vgb, exists as a single copy in Vitreoscilla and exhibits complete agreement with the primary sequence of VHb. [6] [17] The downstream region adjacent to vgb carries a gene in the opposite direction having close similarity with the uvrA gene of E. coli, indicating that vgb is not part of a multigene operon. [18] Biosynthesis of VHb is regulated at the transcriptional level and is induced under hypoxia in its native host. [19] vgb is expressed strongly in E. coli through its native promoter and a similar increase in its transcript level occurs under hypoxia; this suggests a close similarity in the transcriptional machinery of Vitreoscilla and E. coli. [20] The promoter region of vgb is crowded with overlapping binding sites for several redox-sensitive transcriptional regulators, involving the fumarate and nitrate reduction (Fnr) system as primary regulator. [15] The catabolite repression (Crp) system is an additional control [21] along with the aerobic respiration control (Arc) system as a third oxygen-dependent controller. [22] Another binding site for the oxidative stress response regulator (OxyR) is also present within the vgb promoter; all these transcriptional regulators appear to work in coordination with each other to control the biosynthesis of VHb in a redox dependent manner. [15]
Since it was shown that VHb stimulated the growth of E. coli under hypoxic conditions, vgb was cloned into a variety of organisms, including various bacteria, yeast, fungi, and even higher plants and animals to test its effects on growth and production of products of potential commercial importance, the degradation of toxic compounds, the enhancement of nitrification in wastewater treatment, and other environmental applications. [23]
Examples of increased productivity include increased yield of a variety of biochemicals including antibiotics, an insecticide, a surfactant, and potential plastic feedstocks. They also include enzymes [24] (including one which might have anti-leukemic properties), and fuels (including ethanol, [25] butanediol, [26] [27] and biodiesel [28] ). The toxic compounds studied have been aromatics including 2-chlorobenzoic acid and 2,4-dinitrotolene. [29] [30] In these cases, increases in degradation are thought to be due both to the effects of VHb enhancing respiration to provide cells with additional ATP for growth and production of degrading enzymes, and delivery of oxygen directly to the oxygenases required for early steps in the degradative pathways.
Other environmental investigations include those related to heavy metal remediation and provision of soil phosphate to plants. [28] Expression of vgb in Nitrosomonas europaea , a bacterium involved of conversion of ammonia to nitrite in wastewater, enhanced, to some degree, its ability in this conversion. [31] Furthermore, it was shown that the mechanism of haeme protein expression to enhance oxygen supply to the monooxygenase in nitrification under hypoxic conditions is similar to VHb function seen in other applications. [32]
Amino acid residues in several sections of VHb in proximity to the haeme were altered using genetic engineering to change VHb’s affinity for oxygen and to examine the effects on the biotechnological properties of some of the systems studied. [23] Many of the mutations did not have large effects on the ligand binding properties of VHb, or provided at best a modest increase in cell growth compared with cells harboring wild type VHb. [23] [33] Two of the mutant VHb’s, however, provided substantial increases in growth and aromatic compound degradation compared to wild type VHb in Pseudomonas and Burkholderia bacteria transformed to contain vgb. [34]
Hemoglobin is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transport of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the other tissues of the body, where it releases the oxygen to enable aerobic respiration which powers the animal's metabolism. A healthy human has 12 to 20 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 mL of blood. Hemoglobin is a metalloprotein, a chromoprotein, and globulin.
Hemoglobinopathy is the medical term for a group of inherited blood disorders involving the hemoglobin, the protein of red blood cells. They are single-gene disorders and, in most cases, they are inherited as autosomal co-dominant traits.
Leghemoglobin is an oxygen-carrying phytoglobin found in the nitrogen-fixing root nodules of leguminous plants. It is produced by these plants in response to the roots being colonized by nitrogen-fixing bacteria, termed rhizobia, as part of the symbiotic interaction between plant and bacterium: roots not colonized by Rhizobium do not synthesise leghemoglobin. Leghemoglobin has close chemical and structural similarities to hemoglobin, and, like hemoglobin, is red in colour. It was originally thought that the heme prosthetic group for plant leghemoglobin was provided by the bacterial symbiont within symbiotic root nodules. However, subsequent work shows that the plant host strongly expresses heme biosynthesis genes within nodules, and that activation of those genes correlates with leghemoglobin gene expression in developing nodules.
The globins are a superfamily of heme-containing globular proteins, involved in binding and/or transporting oxygen. These proteins all incorporate the globin fold, a series of eight alpha helical segments. Two prominent members include myoglobin and hemoglobin. Both of these proteins reversibly bind oxygen via a heme prosthetic group. They are widely distributed in many organisms.
A blood substitute is a substance used to mimic and fulfill some functions of biological blood. It aims to provide an alternative to blood transfusion, which is transferring blood or blood-based products from one person into another. Thus far, there are no well-accepted oxygen-carrying blood substitutes, which is the typical objective of a red blood cell transfusion; however, there are widely available non-blood volume expanders for cases where only volume restoration is required. These are helping doctors and surgeons avoid the risks of disease transmission and immune suppression, address the chronic blood donor shortage, and address the concerns of Jehovah's Witnesses and others who have religious objections to receiving transfused blood.
A sigma factor is a protein needed for initiation of transcription in bacteria. It is a bacterial transcription initiation factor that enables specific binding of RNA polymerase (RNAP) to gene promoters. It is homologous to archaeal transcription factor B and to eukaryotic factor TFIIB. The specific sigma factor used to initiate transcription of a given gene will vary, depending on the gene and on the environmental signals needed to initiate transcription of that gene. Selection of promoters by RNA polymerase is dependent on the sigma factor that associates with it. They are also found in plant chloroplasts as a part of the bacteria-like plastid-encoded polymerase (PEP).
A respiratory pigment is a metalloprotein that serves a variety of important functions, its main being O2 transport. Other functions performed include O2 storage, CO2 transport, and transportation of substances other than respiratory gases. There are four major classifications of respiratory pigment: hemoglobin, hemocyanin, erythrocruorin–chlorocruorin, and hemerythrin. The heme-containing globin is the most commonly-occurring respiratory pigment, occurring in at least 9 different phyla of animals.
2,3-Butanediol fermentation is anaerobic fermentation of glucose with 2,3-butanediol as one of the end products. The overall stoichiometry of the reaction is
Hemoglobin subunit beta is a globin protein, coded for by the HBB gene, which along with alpha globin (HBA), makes up the most common form of haemoglobin in adult humans, hemoglobin A (HbA). It is 147 amino acids long and has a molecular weight of 15,867 Da. Normal adult human HbA is a heterotetramer consisting of two alpha chains and two beta chains.
Hemoglobin variants are different types of hemoglobin molecules, by different combinations of its subunits and/or mutations thereof. Hemoglobin variants are a part of the normal embryonic and fetal development. They may also be pathologic mutant forms of hemoglobin in a population, caused by variations in genetics. Some well-known hemoglobin variants, such as sickle-cell anemia, are responsible for diseases and are considered hemoglobinopathies. Other variants cause no detectable pathology, and are thus considered non-pathological variants.
Hemoglobin Barts, abbreviated Hb Barts, is an abnormal type of hemoglobin that consists of four gamma globins. It is moderately insoluble, and therefore accumulates in the red blood cells. Hb Barts has an extremely high affinity for oxygen, so it cannot release oxygen to the tissue. Therefore, this makes it an inefficient oxygen carrier. As an embryo develops, it begins to produce alpha-globins at weeks 5–6 of development. When both of the HBA1 and HBA2 genes which code for alpha globins becomes dysfunctional, the affected fetuses will have difficulty in synthesizing a functional hemoglobin. As a result, gamma chains will accumulate and form four gamma globins. These gamma globins bind to form hemoglobin Barts. It is produced in the disease alpha-thalassemia and in the most severe of cases, it is the only form of hemoglobin in circulation. In this situation, a fetus will develop hydrops fetalis and normally die before or shortly after birth, unless intrauterine blood transfusion is performed.
Erythrocruorin, and the similar chlorocruorin, are large oxygen-carrying hemeprotein complexes, which have a molecular mass greater than 3.5 million daltons. Both are sometimes called giant hemoglobin or hexagonal bilayer haemoglobin. They are found in many annelids and arthropods.
Hemoglobin subunit gamma-1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HBG1 gene.
Hemoglobin subunit epsilon is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HBE1 gene.
Hemoglobin subunit zeta is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HBZ gene.
Chaitan Khosla is an Indian-born American biochemist who is the Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Stanford University. He earned his B.Tech. in chemical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1990 with Jay Bailey working on the expression of the Vitreoscilla Hemoglobin gene. He did his postdoctoral work at the John Innes Centre with David Hopwood. He has been a professor at Stanford since 1992 and was the chair of the program. His research is focused on two realms, the first are to build a molecular understanding of polyketide synthases and the second is focused on the biochemistry of celiac disease particularly involving tissue transglutaminase. His group play a large role in identifying the role of the α2-gliadin fragment in immune responses.
Vitreoscilla is a genus of Gram-negative aerobic bacterium. The bacterial haemoglobin (VHb) was first discovered from Vitreoscilla, and VHb is found to have a wide range of biological and biotechnological applications including promotion of cell growth, protein synthesis, metabolite productivity, respiration, cellular detoxification, fermentation, and biodegradation.
Benjamin "Ben" C. Stark is an American biologist and a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He grew up in a small city in mid-Michigan in the 1950s-1960s. After high school he majored in cellular biology at the University of Michigan and later he received his master and doctoral degrees from Yale University with Sidney Altman. After two postdoctoral positions, he took a faculty position at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he has worked since. He has carried out research in the area of genetic engineering and RNA biology.
Phytoglobins are globular plant proteins classified into the globin superfamily, which contain a heme, i.e. protoporphyrin IX-Fe, prosthetic group. The earliest known phytoglobins are leghemoglobins, discovered in 1939 by Kubo after spectroscopic and chemical analysis of the red pigment of soybean root nodules. A few decades after Kubo's report the crystallization of a lupin phytoglobin by Vainshtein and collaborators revealed that the tertiary structure of this protein and that of the sperm whale myoglobin was remarkably similar, thus indicating that the phytoglobin discovered by Kubo did indeed correspond to a globin.
Cell engineering is the purposeful process of adding, deleting, or modifying genetic sequences in living cells to achieve biological engineering goals such as altering cell production, changing cell growth and proliferation requirements, adding or removing cell functions, and many more. Cell engineering often makes use of DNA technology to achieve these modifications as well as closely related tissue engineering methods. Cell engineering can be characterized as an intermediary level in the increasingly specific disciplines of biological engineering which includes organ engineering, tissue engineering, protein engineering, and genetic engineering.