Selenium-More than Just a Fortuitous Sulfur Substitute in Redox Biology.

ABSTRACT: Living organisms use selenium mainly in the form of selenocysteine in the active site of oxidoreductases. Here, selenium's unique chemistry is believed to modulate the reaction mechanism and enhance the catalytic efficiency of specific enzymes in ways not achievable with a sulfur-containing cysteine. However, despite the fact that selenium/sulfur have different physicochemical properties, several selenoproteins have fully functional cysteine-containing homologues and some organisms do not use selenocysteine at all. In this review, selected selenocysteine-containing proteins will be discussed to showcase both situations: (i) selenium as an obligatory element for the protein's physiological function, and (ii) selenium presenting no clear advantage over sulfur (functional proteins with either

SUBMITTER: Maia LB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10779653 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature