Metalloprotein

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A class of proteins that incorporates metal ions, essential for various biochemical processes and often involved in catalysis
2. Proteins that contain metal ions, which are integral to their structure and function, playing key roles in biochemical reactions
3. A type of protein that includes metal ions in its structure, which are crucial for enzymatic activity and other biological functions

Etymology: Metalloproteins are a compound formed from two parts: "metallo-", a combining form meaning metal, and "protein". The first part comes from the Ancient Greek "métallon", which originally meant a mine or quarry, and only later came to mean the metal extracted from one. Mining was the older sense, so the word's first meaning was the place where metal was dug out of the ground rather than the metal itself. "Protein" was itself a coinage. It was formed from the Greek "prōteios", meaning "primary" or "of first importance", reflecting how central these molecules were thought to be to life. Joining the two parts creates a word for proteins that carry metal ions bound within their structure, which is why such proteins are so often involved in catalysis, the speeding up of chemical reactions in living cells.

Synonyms: metal-binding protein