Selenocysteine, identified as the penultimate C-terminal residue in human T-cell thioredoxin reductase, corresponds to TGA in the human placental gene.

Article Details

Citation

Gladyshev VN, Jeang KT, Stadtman TC

Selenocysteine, identified as the penultimate C-terminal residue in human T-cell thioredoxin reductase, corresponds to TGA in the human placental gene.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1996 Jun 11;93(12):6146-51.

PubMed ID
8650234 [ View in PubMed
]
Abstract

The possible relationship of selenium to immunological function which has been suggested for decades was investigated in studies on selenium metabolism in human T cells. One of the major 75Se-labeled selenoproteins detected was purified to homogeneity and shown to be a homodimer of 55-kDa subunits. Each subunit contained about 1 FAD and at least 0.74 Se. This protein proved to be thioredoxin reductase (TR) on the basis of its catalytic activities, cross-reactivity with anti-rat liver TR antibodies, and sequence identities of several tryptic peptides with the published deduced sequence of human placental TR. Physicochemical characteristics of T-cell TR were similar to those of a selenocysteine (Secys)-containing TR recently isolated from human lung adenocarcinoma cells. The sequence of a 12-residue 75Se-labeled tryptic peptide from T-cell TR was identical with a C-terminal-deduced sequence of human placental TR except that Secys was present in the position corresponding to TGA, previously thought to be the termination codon, and this was followed by Gly-499, the actual C-terminal amino acid. The presence of the unusual conserved Cys-Secys-Gly sequence at the C terminus of TR in addition to the redox active cysteines of the Cys-Val-Asn-Val-Gly-Cys motif in the FAD-binding region may account for the peroxidase activity and the relatively low substrate specificity of mammalian TRs. The finding that T-cell TR is a selenoenzyme that contains Se in a conserved C-terminal region provides another example of the role of selenium in a major antioxidant enzyme system (i.e., thioredoxin-thioredoxin reductase), in addition to the well-known glutathione peroxidase enzyme system.

DrugBank Data that Cites this Article

Polypeptides
NameUniProt ID
Thioredoxin reductase 1, cytoplasmicQ16881Details