Crystal structures of nitric oxide reductases provide key insights into functional conversion of respiratory enzymes.

Respiration is an essential biological process to get bioenergy, ATP, for all kingdoms of life. Cytochrome c oxidase (COX) plays central role in aerobic respiration, catalyzing the reduction of O(2) coupled with pumping proton across the biological membrane. Nitric oxide reductase (NOR) involved in anaerobic nitrate respiration is suggested to be evolutionary related to COX and share the same progenitor with COX, on the basis of the amino acid sequence homology. Contrary to COX, NOR catalyzes the reduction of nitric oxide and shows no proton pumping ability. Thus, the respiratory enzyme acquires (or loses) proton pumping ability in addition to the conversion of the catalytic property along with the environmental change on earth. Recently, we solved the structures of two types of NORs, which provides novel insights into the functional conversion of the respiratory enzymes. In this review, we focus on the structural similarities and differences between COXs and NORs and discuss possible mechanism for the functional conversion of these enzymes during molecular evolution.