谷胱甘肽生物合成及代谢相关酶的研究进展

Progress in the Biosynthesis and Metabolism of Glutathione

谷胱甘肽是广泛存在于生物体内的一个含有γ-肽键的生物活性三肽,其中游离的巯基是其活性中心。在生物体内谷胱甘肽主要是由GSH I和GSH II两个酶依次催化合成,而GSH I和GSH II的进化过程复杂,由此衍生出多条生物合成途径,其代谢过程在不同生物体内也复杂多样。本文主要综述了谷胱甘肽生物合成及代谢相关酶的研究进展和利用基因工程手段提高胞内谷胱甘肽含量的策略。

Glutathione（ γ-L-glutamyl-L-cysteinylglycine,GSH）,a tripeptide composed of glutamate,cysteine and glycine,is the most abundant non-protein thiol compound widely distributed in living organisms.There are too many papers on biosynthesis of glutathione. Glutathione is mainly synthesized by the consecutive action of γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase（ GSH I） and glutathione synthetase（ GSH II）,whose evolutionary history is more complex than anticipated. Many organisms without GSH I or GSH II were proved to have the other biosynthetic patheways used to produce glutathione,while they also have complex metabolic pathway. This review summarizes the advance of the biosynthetic pathways and metabolisms of glutathione and the strategies to improve the intracellular level of glutathione using genetic engineering.