Hemerythrin

Abstract

Hemerythrin is a non‐heme iron protein that serves as an oxygen transfer or storage protein in several marine invertebrate phyla (sipunculids, brachiopods, priapulids and annelids). Each protein subunit (13 500 kD) binds two iron atoms by histidine, aspartic acid, and glutamic acid side‐chains. The protein carboxylates and a μ‐oxygen atom bridge the iron atoms in a prototypic FeOFe complex that has been extensively studied. One iron binds exogenous ligands including dioxygen and small anions. The protein functions by reversibly adding dioxygen to a deoxy form containing ferrous iron to produce an oxy form containing ferric iron and a peroxo anion.

Chilean benthic species identified as a new source of antibiotic substances

“…This report is describing for the first time a mild antibiotic activity in this species, but the chemical nature is still unknown. In similar species, a non-heme respiratory protein called hemerythrins (Alvarez-Carreño et al, 2016) plays a biological role in oxygen transport, iron and nitrogen metabolism, heavy metal detoxification and immunomodulation (Sheriff et al, 1987;Wittenberg, 1992;Vanin et al, 2006;Bailly et al, 2008;Stenkamp, 2011;Martín-Durán et al, 2013;Coates & Decker, 2016;Alvarez-Carreño et al, 2018). However, we observed a direct antibiotic activity instead of an immunomodulatory role, suggesting the presence of other antibiotic substances different from hemerythrins in the analyzed organic extract.…”