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Incorporation of Selenium into Bacterial Selenoproteins

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Selenium in Biology and Human Health

Abstract

In 1954, J. Pinsent discovered that Escherichia coli produces gas from formic acid only when the medium is supplemented with the trace elements molybdenum and selenium (1). Thus, E. coli was the first organism for which a biological role of selenium was demonstrated. It took almost 40 years to identify the enzyme responsible for formate oxidation under the aerobic conditions used by Pinsent:It is formate dehydrogenase 0 (FDH0), which presumably is a respiratory chain-linked enzyme coupling formate oxidation to 02 reduction (2). In addition to FDH0, E. coli possesses two other formate dehydrogenases:FDHN couples formate oxidation to nitrate reduction (3). FDHH is a component of the formate hydrogenlyase complex and delivers the electrons withdrawn from formate to hydrogenase 3, thereby reducing protons to elemental hydrogen (4,5).

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Authors
  1. August Böck
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Gastroenterology Department of Medicine School of Medicine, Vanderbilt University, 37232, Nashville, TN, USA

    Raymond F. Burk

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© 1994 Springer-Verlag New York

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Böck, A. (1994). Incorporation of Selenium into Bacterial Selenoproteins. In: Burk, R.F. (eds) Selenium in Biology and Human Health. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2592-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2592-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7597-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2592-8

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