Global InformationBrazzein information
| Brazzein | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Solution NMR structure of the brazzein protein.[1] | |||||||
| Identifiers | |||||||
| Organism | |||||||
| Symbol | MONA_DIOCU | ||||||
| PDB | 1BRZ | ||||||
| UniProt | P56552 | ||||||
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Brazzein is a protein found in the West African fruit of Oubli (Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon). It was first isolated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1994.[2]
Brazzein is found in the extracellular region, in the pulp tissue surrounding the seeds. With pentadin, discovered in 1989, brazzein is the second sweet-tasting protein discovered in the Oubli fruit.[3]
Like the other sweet proteins discovered in plants, such as monellin and thaumatin, it is extremely sweet compared to commonly used sweeteners (500 to 2000 times sweeter than sucrose).[4] The fruit tastes sweet to humans, monkeys, and bonobos, but gorillas have mutations in their sweetness receptors so that they do not find brazzein sweet, and they are not known to eat the fruit.[5][6]
- ^ PDB: 2brz; Caldwell JE, Abildgaard F, Dzakula Z, Ming D, Hellekant G, Markley JL (June 1998). "Solution structure of the thermostable sweet-tasting protein brazzein". Nat. Struct. Biol. 5 (6): 427–31. doi:10.1038/nsb0698-427. PMID 9628478. S2CID 385103.
- ^ Ming D, Hellekant G (November 1994). "Brazzein, a new high-potency thermostable sweet protein from Pentadiplandra brazzeana B". FEBS Lett. 355 (1): 106–8. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(94)01184-2. PMID 7957951. S2CID 6650703.
- ^ van der Wel H, Larson G, Hladik A, Hladik CM, Hellekant G, Glaser D (1989). "Isolation and characterization of pentadin, the sweet principle of Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon" (PDF). Chem. Senses. 14 (1): 75–79. doi:10.1093/chemse/14.1.75.
- ^ Faus I, Sisniega H (2004). "Sweet-tasting Proteins" (PDF). In Hofrichter M, Steinbüchel A (eds.). Biopolymers: Polyamides and Complex Proteinaceous Materials II (8th ed.). Weinheim: Wiley-VCH. pp. 203–209. ISBN 978-3-527-30223-9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-09-20. Retrieved 2007-09-28.
- ^ Guevara EE, Veilleux CC, Saltonstall K, Caccone A, Mundy NI, Bradley BJ (Jul 2016). "Potential arms race in the coevolution of primates and angiosperms: brazzein sweet proteins and gorilla taste receptors". American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 161 (1): 181–185. doi:10.1002/ajpa.23046. PMID 27393125.
- ^ "Gorillas may have evolved a way to beat a cheating berry plant". New Scientist. Jul 23, 2016.