6
As far as I am aware, there is no known requirement for Cd in mammalian systems, but it is extremely toxic (Waalkes & Goering).
It would seem that cadmium is required to get crystals of RBP, and its presence is an artifact of the crystallization process (ref):
Pig holoRBP crystals were obtained at 277 K by the sitting-drop vapor- diffusion method, ...
1
The two most often used methods used to determine protein structures are X-Ray crystallography and NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy). Both of these allow some deductions of electron configuration, but don't actually measure it directly (and as far as I know there is no method available that can do that, but physicists might know more about that).
...
1
Acetyl-CoA has three carbon-hydrogen and one carbon-carbon bond, and it is electrons 'held' in these bonds that are available for biological oxidation. Thus we say that acetyl-CoA contributes four reducing equivalents. In the TCA cycle, these are transiently passed to NAD+ (to give NADH) and to FAD (to give FADH2): the cofactors may be considered ...
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
