Seminario de la EEZ: "Bacterial Nitric Oxide Reductase: Destroying a cytotoxin and forming a greenhouse gas", por el Dr. Nick Watmough

El pasado 6 de febrero de 2009 tuvimos un seminario titulado: "Bacterial Nitric Oxide Reductase: Destroying a cytotoxin and forming a greenhouse gas" que fue impartido por el Dr. Nick Watmough (UEA, Norwich, UK), investigador de la Universidad East Anglia, Norwich, Reino Unido. Para saber un poco más sobre el, pinchar en el siguiente enlace.

Un breve resumen del mismo:

Nitric oxide (NO) is one of the most versatile and important molecules in living organisms. In higher animals and plants it is an important signalling molecule, for example it is the effecter responsible for stimulating the dilation of blood vessels. However it is also a potent cytotoxin and specialised cells called macrophages produce NO as part of a generalized response to invasion by pathogenic bacteria. Such bacteria have evolved a number of enzymatic systems to defend themselves against this 'gas attack'. Soil bacteria which can denitrify also need to protect themselves from the autotoxic effects of NO produced through their own metabolism. They have an enzyme, nitric oxide reductase (NOR) that has evolved to keep endogenous NO levels low by converting it to the relatively benign nitrous oxide (N2O) which can be released into the atmosphere. From the perspective of bacterial metabolism the job of detoxifying the cytoxic NO is done when it is converted to N2O, but from an environmental perspective another toxin, a greenhouse gas, has been produced. This presentation will consider the roles of NOR in bacterial metabolism and review progress towards understanding its mechanism