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. 2012 Apr;13(2):124-33.
doi: 10.2174/138920212799860661.

Evolution of copper transporting ATPases in eukaryotic organisms

Arnab Gupta  1 , Svetlana Lutsenko
Affiliations

Evolution of copper transporting ATPases in eukaryotic organisms

Arnab Gupta et al. Curr Genomics. 2012 Apr.

Abstract

Copper is an essential nutrient for most life forms, however in excess it can be harmful. The ATP-driven copper pumps (Copper-ATPases) play critical role in living organisms by maintaining appropriate copper levels in cells and tissues. These evolutionary conserved polytopic membrane proteins are present in all phyla from simplest life forms (bacteria) to highly evolved eukaryotes (Homo sapiens). The presumed early function in metal detoxification remains the main function of Copper-ATPases in prokaryotic kingdom. In eukaryotes, in addition to removing excess copper from the cell, Copper-ATPases have another equally important function - to supply copper to copper dependent enzymes within the secretory pathway. This review focuses on the origin and diversification of Copper ATPases in eukaryotic organisms. From a single Copper ATPase in protozoans, a divergence into two functionally distinct ATPases is observed with the evolutionary appearance of chordates. Among the key functional domains of Copper-ATPases, the metal-binding N-terminal domain could be responsible for functional diversification of the copper ATPases during the course of evolution.

Keywords: ATP7B; ATPase; CopA.; Copper.

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Figures

Fig. (1)
Fig. (1)
Structural organization of human ATP7B. (a) Three dimensional structure of ATP7B showing the transmembrane domains (blue), actuator domain (gold), nucleotide binding domain (pink), phosphorylation domain (green). (b) The regulatory sites which are important for regulation and localization of the protein have been shown. The N-terminal domain (1-648) is the major site for regulation of the molecule. The luminal loop connecting TM1 and 2 (shown in green) is important for copper binding and release (ATP7A).
Fig. (2)
Fig. (2)
Phylogram of the copper ATPases of species belonging to different evolutionary positions.
Fig. (3)
Fig. (3)
Phylogenetic tree of different species of chordates based upon the N-terminal of the copper ATPase ATP7B.
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