Abstract
COMPARATIVELY few blue proteins, all containing copper, are found in nature. Isolated from organisms all along the evolutionary scale they are1 the ‘blue oxidases’—laccase and ascorbate oxidase of plant origin and ceruloplasmin (ferroxidase) from mammalian serum (molecular weights 60,000–140,000, 4–8 Cu mol−1)—and the ‘small blue proteins’—azurins from bacteria, plastocyanins from photosynthetic cells and others like stellacyanin and umecyanin, found in higher plants (molecular weights, carbohydrate excluded, 11,000–14,000, 1 Cu mol−1). The small blue proteins may all function as electron carriers although a precise role is known only for the plastocyanins.
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RYDEN, L., LUNDGREN, JO. Homology relationships among the small blue proteins. Nature 261, 344–346 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/261344a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/261344a0
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