Figure 9 - full size

Figure 9.
FIGURE 9. Comparison of the active sites of bsNOS (orange) and gsNOS (yellow). In bsNOS, Lys-356 does not interact with Asp-216. A Lys to Arg substitution in gsNOS allows Arg-365 to hydrogen bond with Asp-225 (3.2 Å), altering its side chain position. This change in structure appears to be correlated with movement of Ser-224 that in turn pushes Ile-223 into the active site, reducing the distance between the -carbon of Ile-223 and the heme iron atom from 6.7 Å (bsNOS) to 6.1 Å (gsNOS).