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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 17.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Chem. 2009 Dec 17;2(1):15–24. doi: 10.1038/nchem.473

Figure 4. Retrostructural analysis and design of a dinuclear metalloprotein.

Figure 4

The DF series of designed metalloenzymes were built from structural analysis of dinuclear metal sites in proteins such as ribonucleotide reductase 41. The two metals, two histidines and four glutamates that formed the active site could be described by two half-sites related by a C2 symmetry axis. The same symmetry was found locally in the natural metalloenzymes and was used in the de novo design of a helix-loop-helix dimer, DF-1.