The Research Progress of One Member of the EF_hand Superfamily ——Troponin C

Abstract:

The EF_hand superfamily is a large group of proteins which contain EF_hand motif formed by helix_loop_helix. These proteins always have the ability of binding metal ions or forming dimmers. Troponin C, known as having ability of binding Ca^2＋, is one member of the EF_hand superfamily. Troponin C interacts with troponin I and troponin T, forming a troponin complex which takes part in regulating muscle contraction. It is interesting that troponin C was also found in non_muscular tissue, and its function was proved to be different from that of troponin C found in muscular tissue. To date, a lot of researches about troponin C have been carried out widely. However, most of them focused on vertebrate, seldom were done on invertebrate. Our group carried out a research on troponin C from silkworm, a model organism of insects, aiming to clarify the structure and function of silkworm troponin C. Here, we mainly discuss the characters of the EF_hand superfamily and the classification、structure and function of troponin C . We also introduced our work about silkworm troponin C briefly, hoping of making a little contribution to the research of invertebrate troponin C.