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Deconstructing heme

Abstract

Heme degradation plays important biological roles, ranging from generating light-absorbing compounds in plants to facilitating iron homeostasis in mammals. The X-ray crystal structure of human heme oxygenase-1, which instigates the degradation process, reveals insights into the enzymatic mechanism of this important process.

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Figure 1: Reaction sequence for heme oxygenase.

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Correspondence to Samuel I. Beale.

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Beale, S., Yeh, J. Deconstructing heme. Nat Struct Mol Biol 6, 903–905 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13264

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