19/07/2019 15:00 Tewfik Soulimane — Head of Department of Chemical Sciences, Head of Biomaterials Cluster, Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, Ireland will give a lecture at SCAMT.
The lecture will be given in English.
Abstract:
Cell respiration is a fundamental biological process driven by the respiratory chain. In Thermus thermophilus, the electron transfer chain is composed of two NADH dehydrogenases, succinate dehydrogenase, bc 1 -complex and two distinct terminal oxidases. The role of the latter is to catalyze the energy-conserving reduction of molecular oxygen to water. Over the past two decades, multiple crystal structures of all respiratory enzymes from various species have been determined. My presentation will give a brief overview of the crystal structures of cytochrome c oxidase which is a member of the heme-copper oxidase superfamily (Type A, B and C). The first crystal structures of the type A, bovine heart and Paracoccus denitrificans cytochrome c oxidases were published in 1995 and contributed immensely to the understanding of the enzyme’s mechanism of action (1,2). We have determined the structure of type B, ba 3 -oxidase and type A2 caa 3 -oxidase (3-4). In addition to the activities of the Department of Chemical Sciences, I will introduce in my presentation the newly established Bernal Institute and its current structure highlighting recent success on biopiezoelectricity (5-6) and what we can learn from protein crystals.
