Crystallographic Study Of Wild-Type Carbonic Anhydrase Alpha Ca1 From Chlamydomonas Reinhardtii

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) are ubiquitously distributed and are grouped into three structurally independent classes (alpha CA, beta CA and gamma CA). Most alpha CA enzymes are monomeric, but alpha CA1 from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a dimer that is uniquely stabilized by disulfide bonds. In addition, during maturation an internal peptide of 35 residues is removed and three asparagine residues are glycosylated. In order to obtain insight into the effects of these structural features on CA function, wild-type C. reinhardtii alpha CA1 has been crystallized in space group P6(5), with unit-cell parameters a = b = 134.3, c = 120.2 A. The crystal diffracted to 1.88 A resolution and a preliminary solution of its crystal structure has been obtained by the MAD method.