Reductive power of the archaea right-handed coiled coil nanotube (RHCC-NT) and incorporation of mercury clusters inside protein cages.
McDougall, M., McEleney, K., Francisco, O., Trieu, B., Ogbomo, E.K., Tomy, G., Stetefeld, J.(2018) J Struct Biol 203: 281-287
- PubMed: 29879486 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsb.2018.05.013
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
6BRI - PubMed Abstract: 
Coiled coils are well described as powerful oligomerization motifs and exhibit a large diversity of functions, including gene regulation, cell division, membrane fusion and drug extrusion. The archaea S-layer originated right-handed coiled coil -RHCC-NT- is characterized by extreme stability and is free of cysteine and histidine moieties. In the current study, we have followed a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the capacity of RHCC-NT to bind a variety of ionic complex metal ions. At the outside of the RHCC-NT, one mercury ion forms an electrostatic interaction with the S-methyl moiety of the single methionine residue present in each coil. We demonstrate that RHCC-NT is reducing and incorporating metallic mercury in the large-sized interior cavities which are lined up along the tetrameric channel.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry, University of Manitoba, 144 Dysart Rd, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada; Center for Oil and Gas Research and Development (COGRAD), Canada.