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Copper shares a piece of the π

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Recent crystal structures of a bacterial copper tolerance protein reveal an intriguing copper binding site that includes tryptophan. Its close proximity coupled with spectroscopic data suggests an unusual cation-π interaction between Cu(I) and the aromatic ring of tryptophan.

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Figure 1: CusF is a periplasmic protein that is a component of the CusC-CusF-CusB-CusA copper and silver efflux machinery used by E. coli to tolerate elevated and otherwise toxic concentrations of these metal ions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Katherine J. Franz is in the Department of Chemistry, Duke University, 124 Science Drive, Durham, North Carolina 27708-0346, USA. katherine.franz@duke.edu,

    Katherine J Franz

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  1. Katherine J Franz
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Franz, K. Copper shares a piece of the π. Nat Chem Biol 4, 85–86 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0208-85

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio0208-85

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