Molecular determinants of enzyme cold adaptation: comparative structural and computational studies of cold- and warm-adapted enzymes

Curr Protein Pept Sci. 2011 Nov;12(7):657-83. doi: 10.2174/1389203711109070657.

Abstract

The identification of molecular mechanisms underlying enzyme cold adaptation is a hot-topic both for fundamental research and industrial applications. In the present contribution, we review the last decades of structural computational investigations on cold-adapted enzymes in comparison to their warm-adapted counterparts. Comparative sequence and structural studies allow the definition of a multitude of adaptation strategies. Different enzymes carried out diverse mechanisms to adapt to low temperatures, so that a general theory for enzyme cold adaptation cannot be formulated. However, some common features can be traced in dynamic and flexibility properties of these enzymes, as well as in their intra- and inter-molecular interaction networks. Interestingly, the current data suggest that a family-centered point of view is necessary in the comparative analyses of cold- and warm-adapted enzymes. In fact, enzymes belonging to the same family or superfamily, thus sharing at least the three-dimensional fold and common features of the functional sites, have evolved similar structural and dynamic patterns to overcome the detrimental effects of low temperatures.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Biological* / genetics
  • Coenzymes / metabolism
  • Cold Temperature*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Enzyme Stability
  • Enzymes / chemistry*
  • Enzymes / genetics
  • Enzymes / metabolism
  • Hot Temperature
  • Metals / metabolism
  • Molecular Dynamics Simulation
  • Protein Conformation
  • Protein Folding
  • Sequence Analysis, Protein
  • Static Electricity
  • Structural Homology, Protein

Substances

  • Coenzymes
  • Enzymes
  • Metals