著者

河野 史明 栗原 和男 玉田 太郎

出版者

一般社団法人 日本生物物理学会

雑誌

生物物理 (ISSN:05824052)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.61, no.4, pp.216-222, 2021 (Released:2021-07-30)

参考文献数

22

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Neutron crystallography enables direct observation of hydrogen atoms which play crucial roles in the physiological functions of enzymes, including molecular recognition through hydrogen bonding and catalytic reactions involving proton-coupled electron transfer. Now neutron crystallography is a limited method for protein structure determination, but steadily catholicizes with an operation of diffractometers for bio-macromolecules at neutron facilities and accumulated techniques for sample preparation. In this article, we give a commentary on the current status of neutron crystallography for bio-macromolecules in the world, and illustrate our recent results, neutron structural analyses of copper amine oxidase and copper-containing nitrite reductase, which provide in-depth understandings of the enzymatic reaction mechanism.