Structure and Function of Carbonic Anhydrase
Several forms of carbonic anhydrase occur in nature. In the best-studied α-carbonic anhydrase form present in animals, the zinc ion is coordinated by the imidazole rings of 3 histidine residues, His94, His96, and His119.
The primary function of the enzyme in animals is to interconvert carbon dioxide and bicarbonate to maintain acid-base balance in blood and other tissues, and to help transport carbon dioxide out of tissues.
There exist at least 14 different isoforms in mammals. Plants contain a different form called β-carbonic anhydrase, which, from an evolutionary standpoint, is a distinct enzyme, but participates in the same reaction and also uses a zinc ion in its active site. In plants, carbonic anhydrase helps raise the concentration of CO2 within the chloroplast in order to increase the carboxylation rate of the enzyme RuBisCO. This is the reaction that integrates CO2 into organic carbon sugars during photosynthesis, and can use only the CO2 form of carbon, not carbonic acid or bicarbonate.
A cadmium-containing carbonic anhydrase was found to be expressed in marine diatoms during zinc limitation. In the open ocean, zinc is often in such low concentrations that it can limit the growth of phytoplankton like diatoms; thus, a carbonic anhydrase using a different metal ion would be beneficial in these environments. Cadmium has in general been thought of as a very toxic heavy metal without biological function. This peculiar carbonic anhydrase form hosts the only known beneficial cadmium-dependent biological reaction.
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