Purification and Metal Binding Studies of Copper-Zinc Superoxide Dismutase

Copper-zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) is an enzyme that has been linked to familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (FALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’ s disease. Point mutations of this enzyme seem to affect the protein’ s folding and the protein’ s ability to bind metals, which affect the protein’ s functionality, but the exact mechanism by which this occurs is still unknown. The main goal of our project is to study the metal binding properties of the mutant A4V compared to wild-type CuZnSOD isolated from E. coli. We developed a method to isolate and purify CuZnSOD using column chromatography, and experimented with different methods for metallation of the protein as well as testing the enzymatic activity of remetallated protein.

Christina Klug, ’07 Cedar Rapids, IA
Majors: Chemistry-ACS Certified, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Sponsor: Cynthia Strong