Hydrogenase enzymes catalyze production and utilization of hydrogen gas, which is considered as a future energy carrier. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg and a collaborator at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics discovered that [Fe]-hydrogenase is protected by conformational change of the protein. This finding is crucial for future application of hydrogenases and for understanding the catalytic mechanism of this enzyme.
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