IMR Press / FBL / Volume 24 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/4711

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review
What does “NO-Synthase” stand for?
Show Less
1 Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), CEA, CNRS, Univ Paris-Sud, Universite Paris-Saclay, F-91198, Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France
Send correspondence to: Jerome Santolini, Laboratoire Stress Oxydant et Détoxication,Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC),CEA, CNRS, Univ Paris-Sud, Universite Paris-Saclay, F-91198, Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France,Tel: 33-1-69-08-53-63, Fax: 33-1-69-08-87-17, E-mail: jerome.santolini@cea.fr
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2019, 24(1), 129–167; https://doi.org/10.2741/4711
Published: 1 January 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitric oxide: Biology and chemistry)
Abstract

Mammalian NO-Synthases (NOSs) are the enzymatic sources of Nitric Oxide (NO°), a paradigmatic gasotransmitter involved in many (patho)-physiological processes. The increasing number of available genomes led to the identification of hundreds of new NOS proteins throughout the kingdoms of life, calling for a global investigation of this family of proteins. These new NOSs are commonly believed to share the same structure, functioning and role as mammalian NOSs. The scope of this article is to highlight the singularity of these NOSs and to describe their complex structural and functional diversity. NOS appears as a unique enzymatic machinery that exhibits a complex Structure – Activity – Function relationship. Its sophisticated redox mechanism and enzymatic regulation, coupled to the vast biological chemistry of reactive nitrogen species, leads to a specific cross-talk between NOS catalysis and its biological environment that implies a complex evolution of NOS function. This paper addresses the relationship between structure, function and evolution of NOS proteins using three NOS model families and advocates for an integrative and interdisciplinary approach that combines modelling studies, structural characterization, and in vitro/in vivo functional investigations.

Keywords
NO-Synthases
Nitric Oxide
Phylogeny
Mechanism
Function
Evolution
Review
Figures
Figure 1
Share
Back to top