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The Thioester Bond of C3

  • Conference paper
The Third Component of Complement

Part of the book series: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology ((CT MICROBIOLOGY,volume 153))

Abstract

Thioester bonds are not uncommon in biochemical systems, being formed as intermediates in the reaction mechanisms of a number of enzymes (LIU 1976; DOUGLAS 1987). Thioester bonds are, however, important structural and functional features of certain proteins, including C3. C3 shares the thioester bond with several other proteins, principally the fourth complement protein, C4, and α2-macroglobulin. It is this bond that confers upon C3 the ability to form covalent bonds with cell-surface macromolecules, immune complexes, and a variety of small molecules in solution (LAW and LEVINE 1977; LAW etal. 1979, 1980, 1981). The bond in C3 lies in the α-polypeptide linking the—SH group of a cysteinyl residue to the y-carboxyl group of a glutaminyl residue. The same obtains in C4 and α-macroglobulin, and the three proteins share extensive amino acid homology throughout their structure, particularly in the vicinity of the bond.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. James S. McDonnell Department of Genetics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

    R. P. Levine

  2. MRC Immunochemistry Unit, Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    R. P. Levine & A. W. Dodds

Authors
  1. R. P. Levine
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  2. A. W. Dodds
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Basel Institute for Immunology, Grenzacherstr. 487, CH-4005, Basel, Switzerland

    John D. Lambris Ph. D.

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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Levine, R.P., Dodds, A.W. (1990). The Thioester Bond of C3. In: Lambris, J.D. (eds) The Third Component of Complement. Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology, vol 153. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74977-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74977-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74979-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74977-3

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