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标题：Nitrosative stress: Metabolic pathway involving the flavohemoglobin
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作者：Alfred Hausladen ; Andrew J. Gow ; Jonathan S. Stamler 等
期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1998
卷号：95
期号：24
页码：14100-14105
DOI：10.1073/pnas.95.24.14100
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Nitric oxide (NO) biology has focused on the tightly regulated enzymatic mechanism that transforms L-arginine into a family of molecules, which serve both signaling and defense functions. However, very little is known of the pathways that metabolize these molecules or turn off the signals. The paradigm is well exemplified in bacteria where S-nitrosothiols (SNO)--compounds identified with antimicrobial activities of NO synthase--elicit responses that mediate bacterial resistance by unknown mechanisms. Here we show that Escherichia coli possess both constitutive and inducible elements for SNO metabolism. Constitutive enzyme(s) cleave SNO to NO whereas bacterial hemoglobin, a widely distributed flavohemoglobin of poorly understood function, is central to the inducible response. Remarkably, the protein has evolved a novel heme-detoxification mechanism for NO. Specifically, the heme serves a dioxygenase function that produces mainly nitrate. These studies thus provide new insights into SNO and NO metabolism and identify enzymes with reactions that were thought to occur only by chemical means. Our results also emphasize that the reactions of SNO and NO with hemoglobins are evolutionary conserved, but have been adapted for cell-specific function.