Search

Background and aims The mechanisms of cancer cell growth and metastasis are still not entirely understood, especially from the viewpoint of chemical reactions in tumours. Glycolytic metabolism is markedly accelerated in cancer cells, causing the accumulation of glucose (a reducing sugar) and methionine (an amino acid), which can non-enzymatically react and form carcinogenic substances. There is speculation that this reaction produces gaseous sulfur-containing compounds in tumour tissue. The aims of this study were to clarify the products in tumour and to investigate their effect on tumour proliferation. Methods Products formed in the reaction between glucose and methionine or its metabolites were analysed in vitro using gas chromatography. Flatus samples from patients with colon cancer and exhaled air samples from patients with lung cancer were analysed using near-edge x-ray fine adsorption structure spectroscopy and compared with those from healthy individuals. The tumour proliferation rates of mice into which HT29 human colon cancer cells had been implanted were compared with those of mice in which the cancer cells were surrounded by sodium hyaluronate gel to prevent diffusion of gaseous material into the healthy cells. Results Gaseous sulfur-containing compounds such as methanethiol and hydrogen sulfide were produced when glucose was allowed to react with methionine or its metabolites homocysteine or cysteine. Near-edge x-ray fine adsorption structure spectroscopy showed that the concentrations of sulfur-containing compounds in the samples of flatus from patients with colon cancer and in the samples of exhaled air from patients with lung cancer were significantly higher than in those from healthy individuals. Animal experiments showed that preventing the diffusion of sulfur-containing compounds had a pronounced antitumour effect. Conclusions Gaseous sulfur-containing compounds are the main products in tumours and preventing the diffusion of these compounds reduces the tumour proliferation rate, which suggests the possibility of a new approach to cancer treatment.

About 1,000 houses built on excavated nonweathered mudstone sediments, originally deposited in the Neogene, have been damaged by microbially induced heaving of foundations. The maximal height of the heaving was 48 cm. The presence of sulfate-reducing, sulfur-oxidizing, and acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria in the mudstone indicated that the joint activity of these three types of bacteria could account for the heaving. A hypothesis is presented in which, first, the temperature of the newly exposed mudstone sediments increased above 25 °C, which stimulated the sulfate-reducing bacteria in the mudstone to actively reduce sulfate to hydrogen sulfide. The mudstone sediments under the houses gradually dried, and became permeable to air. Consequently, sulfur-oxidizing bacteria oxidized the hydrogen sulfide to sulfuric acid and the environmental pH decreased to approximately 3. Next, the acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria actively oxidized the sulfur in pyrite to produce much more acid. The resulting sulfuric ...

Not only sulfur-oxidizing bacteria but also an acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterium (or bacteria) were found in the corroded concrete from several sewerage systems in Japan. The surface pH of concrete test piece exposed to an atmosphere containing hydrogen sulfide of the concentrations more than 600 ppm in the systems was usually below 2 after a month. This was attributable to ability of the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria to grow in the thin water layer which contained hydrogen sulfide and covered the piece even when the surface pH of concrete was 12–13. When the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria grew in the surface of concrete and produced sulfuric acid, the pH of the inner parts of concrete was lowered where the bacteria were hardly found. Probably, sulfuric acid formed by the bacteria in the surface parts penetrated into the inner parts. The different species of sulfur-oxidizing bacteria were found in different sewerage systems. The growth of the sulfur-oxidizing and acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacteria was completely inhibited by formates, especially by calcium formate of concentrations more than 50 mM. Calcium formate can protect concrete in sewerage systems from bacterial corrosion.

The contents of D-enantiomers of serine, alanine, proline, glutamate (glutamine) and aspartate (asparagine) were examined in the membrane fractions, soluble proteins and free amino acids from some species of archaea, Pyrobaculum islandicum, Methanosarcina barkeri and Halobacterium salinarium. Around 2% (D/D+L) of D-aspartate was found in the membrane fractions. In the soluble proteins, the D-amino acid content was higher in P. islandicum than that in the other archaeal cells: the concentrations in P. islandicum were 3 and 4% for D-serine and D-aspartate, respectively. High concentrations of free D-amino acids were found in P. islandicum and H. salinarium; the concentrations of D-serine (12-13%), D-aspartate (4-7%) and D-proline (3-4%) were higher than those of D-alanine and D-glutamate. This result showed a resemblance between these archaea and not bacterial, but eukaryotic cells. The presence of D-amino acids was confirmed by their digestion with D-amino acid oxidase and D-aspartate oxidase. The occurrence of D-amino acids was also confirmed by the presence of activities catalyzing catabolism of D-amino acids in the P. islandicum homogenate, as measured by 2-oxo acid formation. The catalytic activities oxidizing D-alanine, D-aspartate and D-serine at 90 degrees C were considerably high. Under anaerobic conditions, dehydrogenase activities of the homogenate were 69, 84 and 30% of the above oxidase activities toward D-alanine, D-aspartate and D-serine, respectively. Comparable or higher dehydrogenase activities were also detected with these D-amino acids as substrate by the reduction of 2, 6-dichlorophenolindophenol. No D-amino acid oxidase activity was detected in the homogenates of M. barkeri and H. salinarium.

From the heterotrophic nitrifier Alcaligenes faecalis IFO 13111, an enzyme was purified which oxidized pyruvic oxime to nitrite. The molecular mass of the enzyme was 115 kDa and its molecule was composed of three molecules of subunits with the same molecular mass of 40 kDa. The enzyme contained 3 atoms of nonheme iron in the molecule and was active when the iron atoms were in a ferrous state. The enzyme consumed one mol of O2 to form one mol each of nitrite and pyruvate from one mol of pyruvic oxime. Therefore, the enzyme was thought to be a pyruvic oxime dioxygenase.

The enzymatic reactions involved in the oxidation of sulfide, sulfite, thiosulfate, ferrous ions, ammonia, and nitrite are reviewed for Chlorobium limicola f. thiosulfatophilum, Thiobacillus novellus, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, Nitrosomonas europaea, and Nitrobacter winogradskyi. The properties of the purified redox enzymes and of proteins that participate in the oxidation of the inorganic compounds in these autotrophic bacteria are summarized, and the mechanisms of the oxidation of the inorganic compounds are discussed on the basis of the interactions between the redox enzymes and carriers.

The damage by upheaval of the residential land of houses built on the mudstone of the Miocene has been reported in Iwaki-city area, Fukusima prefecture, Japan. The present studies were performed intending to clarify the reasons why the land was upheaved. When the fresh mudstone was added to the culture medium for Thiobacillus novellus supplemented with sodium sulfide, the pH of the medium decreased from 8 to 3.2 during 7 day-cultivation at 28°C. When the mudstone was added to the medium for Thiobacillus ferrooxidans in which ferrous sulfate was replaced by powdered pyrite and pH was adjusted to 7, the pH of the medium decreased from 7 to 2, and the concentrations of ferrous and ferric ions in the medium greatly increased. When the mudstone sterilized at 121°C for 20 min was used, neither the decrease of the pH nor the increase in the concentrations of ferrous and ferric ions was observed. Therefore, the microorganisms, sulfur oxidizing and acidophilic iron oxidizing bacteria, in the mudstone seemed to have oxidized pyrite to form sulfuric acid if sulfide was available, even though the initial pH of the mudstone was 7 - 8. Sulfuric acid thus formed will form gypsum which seems to be one of the causes of upheaval of the ground.

We constructed chimeric enzymes with the Escherichia coli cytochrome bo and the Halobacterium salinarium cytochrome aa 3 through recombinant DNA techniques and investigated their spectroscopic and biochemical properties. Although most of the chimeras could not retain hemes in the molecule, the chimeric enzyme containing helix VII of subunit I of the H. salinarium cytochrome aa 3 showed the spectral properties similar to those of the native E. coli oxidase, suggesting that both the low-spin heme b and the high-spin heme o are associated with the chimeric subunit I. However, CU B was absent in the chimera. Helix VII of subunit I of the H. salinarium cytochrome aa 3 is 70% similar to the counterpart of the E. coli cytochrome bo and further contains two invariant histidines which serve as the Cu B ligands. These results indicate that helix VII must be arranged properly relative to helix VI which provides the third Cu B ligand.

The reactivity between different cytochromes c purified from Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells grown aerobically in the absence of nitrate and isolated cytochromes co and baa3 was determined. The P. aeruginosa cytochrome co reacted most rapidly with the membrane-bound cytochrome c-551 among three c-type cytochromes analyzed, whereas the cytochrome baa3 reacted best with the membrane-bound cytochrome c-555. The results indicated that two terminal electron transfer systems are present in aerobic P. aeruginosa: one contains the cytochrome c-551 and cytochrome co, and the other contains the cytochrome c-555 and cytochrome baa3.

Second derivative absorption spectra are reported for the aa3-cytochrome c oxidase from bovine cardiac mitochondria, the aa3-600 ubiquinol oxidase from Bacillus subtilis, the ba3-cytochrome c oxidase from Thermus thermophilis, and the aco-cytochrome c oxidase from Bacillus YN-2000. Together these enzymes provide a range of cofactor combinations that allow us to unequivocally identify the origin of the 450-nm absorption band of the terminal oxidases as the 6-coordinate low-spin heme, cytochrome a. The spectrum of the aco-cytochrome c oxidase further establishes that the split Soret band of cytochrome a, with features at 443 and 450 nm, is common to all forms of the enzyme containing ferrocytochrome a and does not depend on ligand occupancy at the other heme cofactor as previously suggested. To test the universality of this Soret band splitting for 6-coordinate low-spin heme A systems, we have reconstituted purified heme A with the apo forms of the heme binding proteins, hemopexin, histidine-proline-rich glycoprotein and the H64V/V68H double mutant of human myoglobin. All 3 proteins bound the heme A as a (bis)histidine complex, as judged by optical and resonance Raman spectroscopy. In the ferroheme A forms, none of these proteins displayed evidence of Soret band splitting. Heme A-(bis)imidazole in aqueous detergent solution likewise failed to display Soret band splitting. When the cyanide-inhibited mixed-valence form of the bovine enzyme was partially denatured by chemical or thermal means, the split Soret transition of cytochrome a collapsed into a single band at 443 nm. Taken together these data suggest that the observation of Soret splitting, including a feature at 450 nm, results from specific protein-cofactor interactions that are unique to the cytochrome a-binding pocket of the terminal oxidases. The conservation of this unique binding pocket among evolutionarily distant species may reflect some mechanistic significance for this structure.

Cytochromebc was partially purified from the methanogen,Methanosarcina barkeri. The cytochrome was composed of three subunits with molecular masses of 23.4, 20.9, and 9.1 kDa, respectively, and the 23.4 kDa subunit contained haemc. The absorption spectrum of cytochromebc showed a peak at 411 nm in the oxidized form, and peaks at 554, 524, and 422 nm in the reduced form. The cytochrome reacted with CO, and its low temperature absorption spectrum showed the α peak at 552 nm with a shoulder at 557 nm.

A new ammonia-oxidizing strain, isolated from an aerobic biofilm in a domestic sewage-treatment system, was identified as a species of Nitrosomonas different from Nitrosomonas europaea. This strain had morphological features and growth characteristics typical of members of the genus Nitrosomonas. The G+C content of the DNA of this strain was 48.5 mol%, being lower than that of known strains of N. europaea. The extent of the homology between the DNA of this strain and that of other strains of N. europaea was less than 30%. After cells of this isolate, immobilized in a polyacrylamide gel, had been added to the aerobic reactor of a laboratory-scale sewage-treatment system, the concentration of ammonium nitrogen in the effluent decreased to 2 mg/l without the accumulation of nitrite, and removal of more than 70% of the nitrogen from the input sewage was achieved.

Cytochrome aco3 of Bacillus YN-2000 was purified by an improved procedure and its molecular features and catalytic activity were extensively studied. The enzyme molecule was composed of three subunits with M(r)s of 50,000, 41,000, and 22,000, and contains 1 molecule each of cytochrome a, cytochrome c, and cytochrome o3 in the minimal structural unit (M(r), 113,000). The 41,000 subunit (subunit II) contains heme c. The EPR, optical, and resonance Raman spectra of the oxidized enzyme demonstrated the presence of CuA whose coordination environment bore close resemblance to that of the aa3-type cytochrome c oxidase. Resonance Raman studies demonstrated that the cytochrome a moiety was similar to that of an aa3-type oxidase and also that the cytochrome o3 contained a five-coordinated high-spin heme with histidine as an axial ligand. The Fe-CO stretching mode of the cytochrome o3.CO complex was observed at 520 cm-1, which is the same frequency as that of cytochrome aa3.CO. The oxygen consumption activity of cytochrome aco3 was measured using several kinds of cytochromes c as the electron mediators. The reaction between cytochrome aco3 and eucaryotic cytochromes c was completely inhibited by poly-L-lysine. In contrast, poly-L-lysine was indispensable for sufficient reaction between the oxidase and Bacillus YN-2000 cytochrome c-553, the physiological electron donor. The combined results on the structure and enzymatic properties suggest that the cytochrome aco3 is very similar to cytochrome caa3 except that the cytochrome aco3 has cytochrome o3 in place of cytochrome a3 and the cytochrome c component has a very low redox midpoint potential (95 mV).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Cytochrome c oxidase from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans was purified to homogeneity and some of its properties were studied. The oxidase was solubilized with n-octyl-beta-D-thioglucoside (OTG) under acidic conditions (pH 4.0) and purified by one step of ion-exchange chromatography with a CM-Toyopearl column. The absorption spectrum of the oxidase showed peaks at 420 and 595 nm in the oxidized form and at 440 and 595 nm in the reduced form. Its CO compound showed a novel absorption spectrum; a double-peaked gamma band appeared at 429 and 438 nm. The oxidase seemed to have CuA-like copper atom from its ESR and near-infrared spectra. The oxidase molecule consisted of three polypeptides with molecular weights of 53,000, 22,000, and 17,000, respectively, as estimated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. The molecular weight of the enzyme in a solution containing detergents was estimated to be 169,000 on the basis of the results obtained by gel filtration, while the molecular weight per heme alpha was estimated to be 83,700. The copper content of the oxidase was 1.01 g atom per mol of heme alpha. Therefore, the cytochrome seemed to contain one molecule of heme alpha and one atom of copper in the minimal structural unit consisting of one molecule each of the three subunits, and to occur as a dimer of the unit in the solution. The oxidase oxidized ferrocytochrome c-552 of the bacterium, and the optimal pH of the reaction was 3.5.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Summary A novel aa 3 -type cytochrome oxidase from the extremely halophilic archaeon, Halobacterium halobium , differs significantly from those of other prokaryotic and eukaryotic cytochrome oxidases (Fujiwara,T., Fukumori,Y., and Yamanaka,T. (1989) J. Biochem. 105 , 287–292). In the present study, we cloned and sequenced the gene which encodes the cytochrome aa 3 by using the polymerase chain reaction methods. The deduced amino acid sequence of subunit I of H. halobium cytochrome aa 3 was more similar to that of subunit I of the eukaryotic cytochrome (44%, maize mitochondria) than that of the cytochrome from other bacteria (36%, Paracoccus denitrificans ). The consensus sequence in putative metal binding residues is well-conserved also in H. halobium cytochrome aa 3 .

An ATPase was purified from Nitrobacter winogradskyi, and some of its molecular and enzymatic properties were determined. The enzyme was composed of two subunits of 64 and 59 kDa, respectively. The enzyme had its pH optimum at 9.5 and showed a specific activity of 7 units per mg protein. This activity was about 14% and 18% of that of F1-ATPases obtained from Escherichia coli and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, respectively. The enzyme was 29% and 6% inhibited by 100 μM dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCCD) and 100 μM NaN3, respectively. It was not inhibited by 20 mM NaNO3.

Cytochrome P-460 of Nitrosomonas europaea [Erickson, R.H. and Hooper, A.B. (1972) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 275, 231-244] was further purified to an electrophoretically homogeneous state. The cytochrome molecule was composed of three molecules of subunits with Mr of 17,300-18,500, and contained three atoms of iron, which seemed to be heme iron, and six cysteine residues, but did not contain nonheme iron or inorganic sulfide. The cytochrome showed absorption peaks at 460 and 688 nm with a broad shoulder at 635 nm in the reduced form. The ESR spectrum of ferricytochrome P-460 showed signals at g = 5.91, 5.63, and 1.99, indicating that the protein was a high spin hemoprotein. The heme of the cytochrome was not cleaved by the methods which were available for cleavage of heme c. The pyridine ferrohemochrome of the hemoprotein did not show the distinct alpha and beta peaks which are shown by the ferrohemochromes of many other cytochromes so far known. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of cytochrome P-460 differed from that of hydroxylamine oxidoreductase. Therefore, cytochrome P-460 did not seem to be the solubilized P-460 moiety of hydroxylamine oxidoreductase, in agreement with the finding by D.J. Miller et al. [J. Gen. Microbiol. 130, 3049-3054 (1984)]. However, cytochrome P-460 had several enzymatic activities which hydroxylamine oxidoreductase showed. Although most of the activities of the cytochrome were lower than the corresponding activities of the oxidoreductase, the hydroxylamine-cytochrome c-552 reductase activity of the cytochrome was about 5-times as high as that of the oxidoreductase.

Catalase was purified to an electrophoretically homogeneous state from the facultative alkalophilic bacterium, Bacillus YN-2000, and some of its properties were studied. Its molecular weight was 282,000 and its molecule was composed of four identical subunits. The enzyme contained two protoheme molecules per tetramer. The enzyme showed an absorption spectrum of typical high-spin ferric heme with a peak at 406 nm in the oxidized form and peaks at 440, 559, and 592 nm in the reduced form. In contrast to the typical catalases, the enzyme was reduced with sodium dithionite, like peroxidases. The enzyme showed an appreciable peroxidase activity in addition to high catalase activity. The amino acid composition of Bacillus YN-2000 catalase was very similar to those of catalase from Neurospora crassa and peroxidase from Halobacterium halobium. The catalase content in the soluble fraction from the bacterium was higher with the cells grown at pH 10 than with the cells grown at lower pHs (pH 7-9).

The electron transport system (with cytochrome aa3) coupled to the oxidation of methanol in Methylobacterium extorquens AM1 (former Pseudomonas AM1) was reconstituted with highly purified constituents of the system. A mixture of 2.7 microM methanol dehydrogenase, 3.2 microM cytochrome cH, and 71 nM cytochrome c oxidase (= cytochrome aa3) consumed oxygen at a lower rate in the presence of methanol, while its activity was enhanced 3-fold by the addition of 1.4 microM cytochrome cL (74 mol of O2 consumed/mol of heme a of cytochrome c oxidase per min). Further addition of amicyanin to the above mixture did not affect the activity. Although ammonium ion greatly activated the activity of methanol dehydrogenase, the ion had little effect on the oxygen consumption activity of the above mixture. On the basis of the results obtained in the present study, an electron transport system is proposed for the oxidation of methanol in M. extorquens AM1.

A novel aco-type cytochrome-c oxidase was highly purified from the facultative alkalophilic bacterium, Bacillus YN-2000, grown at pH 10. The enzyme contained 9.0 nmol heme a/mg protein. It contained 1.23 mol of protoheme, 1.06 mol of heme c, 2.0 g atoms of copper, 2.5 g atoms of iron, and 1.8 g atoms of magnesium per mol of heme a. The enzyme molecule seemed to be composed of two subunits with Mrs of 52,000 and 41,600. On the basis of these results, the enzyme seemed to contain one molecule each of heme a, protoheme, and heme c per minimal structural unit (Mr, 93,600). Only protoheme among the three kinds of hemes in the enzyme reacted with CO and CN-. Heme a did not react with CO; cytochrome a3 did not seem to be present in the enzyme. The enzyme oxidized 314 mol of horse ferrocytochrome c per heme a per sec at pH 6.5 and the catalytic activity was 50% inhibited by 7.65 microM KCN. The enzymatic activity was found to be optimal at pH 6.0.

The catalytic activity and molecular aspects of Thiobacillus novellus cytpchrome c oxidase were affected by ATP. The steady-state kinetics in the oxidation of ferrocytochrome c by the oxidase varied with the presence or absence of ATP; the [S]-v curve of the reaction was sigmoid in the absence of ATP whereas it was a Michaelis-Menten-type hyperbola in the presence of 700 microM ATP. The oxidase was a dimer of the minimal structural subunit consisting of one molecule each of two subunits in the presence of Tween 20 and in the absence of ATP. The dimer dissociated into monomers in the presence of 700 microM ATP. The trough at 452 nm seen in the second derivative absorption spectrum of the CO compound of the oxidase in the absence of ATP, a characteristic of the cytochrome a component of cytochrome aa3, dissappeared in the presence of 700 microM ATP. However, ADP, AMP, GTP, CTP and UTP had little affect on both the [S]-v curve and the molecular mass of the oxidase when used in place of ATP.

The occurrence of peptidyl D-amino acids in the aqueous soluble fractions was investigated in various eubacteria, some archaea and some eukaryotes. The contents of the D-enantiomers of serine, alanine, proline, glutamate (glutamine), aspartate (asparagine) and phenylalanine were determined with cell- and tissue-extracts, by means of acid hydrolysis and high-performance liquid chromatography. The rate of D-enantiomer (%, the ratio in molar concentration of a D-amino acid to the total of the D-amino acid and the corresponding L-amino acid) of alanine and glutamate were high in some Gram-positive eubacteria: 11.7% in Staphylococcus epidermidis and 10.3% in Streptococcus pyogenes for alanine, and 22.3% for glutamate in Bacillus YN-1. The D-glutamate content was also high (8.0%) in the Gram-negative eubacterium, Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. D-Aspartate was common, as was D-glutamate: the highest D-aspartate content was detected in an archaeum, Pyrobaculum islandicum (4.0%). However, the content of D-aspartate was low, 0.2-1.8% in most other bacteria. The presence of D-serine was shown in some organisms, but that of D-proline was scarce. The D-enantiomer of phenylalanine was not detected in any of the organisms examined. These results indicate that of the bacteria examined herein most Gram-negative and some Gram-positive eubacteria, as well as archaea contain only low levels of D-amino acids in the soluble peptidyl fraction, and the levels were comparable to those in eukaryotes examined. To our knowledge, the general presence of peptidyl D-amino acids in these organisms, especially archaea and eukaryotic cells including those from rat liver tissues, has been shown here for the first time.

Thiobacillus novellus cytochrome c oxidase has one heme a molecule and one copper atom in the minimal structural unit consisting of one molecule each of two subunits (32 and 23 kDa). The oxidase occurs as a monomer of the unit in the presence of 0.5% n-octyl-β-D-thioglucoside and as a dimer of the unit in the presence of 0.5% Tween 20. The heme molecule in the monomer is completely reactive with CO, that is, the monomeric oxidase appears to be cytochrome a3, while one of the two heure molecules in the dimer reacts with CO, that is, the dimeric oxidase appears to be cytochrome aa3. The [s]-v curve in the oxidation of ferrocytochrome c catalyzed by the dimeric oxidase is sigmoidal. On addition of ATP, the molecular mass of the dimeric oxidase becomes half and the [s]-v curve changes to a hyperbola from a sigmoid. Thus, ATP regulates the molecular states and catalytic properties of the oxidase.

An enzyme which participated in the oxidation of hydroxylamine to nitrite from was partially purified Alcaligenes faecalis, and some of its properties were studied. The enzyme oxidized aerobically pyruvic oxime to nitrite in the presence of hydroxylamine or ascorbate. As molecular oxygen equimolar to nitrite formed was consumed in the enzymatic oxidation of pyruvic oxime to nitrite, the enzyme was thought to be a dioxygenase. It was an iron protein, and a reducing reagent was required to keep the iron in the ferrous state for the action of the enzyme.

The enzymes and redox proteins, which participate in the oxidation of ferrous ion by the acidophilic iron-oxidizing bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans, have been isolated and characterized. They are Fe(II)-cytochrome c oxidoreductase, cytochromes c-552(s), c-552(m) and c-550(m), rusticyanin, and cytochrome c oxidase. On the basis of the interactions of these components, an electron transfer system has been proposed which seems to function in the oxidation of ferrous ion by the bacterium.

Membrane-bound cytochrome c, cytochrome c-552 (m) was purified from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans. It showed an absorption peak at 410 nm in the oxidized form, and peaks at 552, 523 and 416 nm in the reduced form. Its molecular mass, Em,7 and isoelectric point were 22,300, +0.336 volt and 9.1, respectively. Another membrane-bound cytochrome c, cytochrome c-550 (m) was also purified. It showed an absorption peak at 408 nm in the oxidized form, and peaks at 550, 523 and 418 nm in the reduced form. Its molecular mass was estimated to be 51,000. Ferrocytochromes c-552 (m) and c-550 (m) were oxidized by cytochrome c oxidase of the bacterium. The reactivity with the oxidase of cytochrome c-550 (m) was higher than that of cytochrome c-552 (s) (soluble cytochrome) of the bacterium, while the reactivity of cytochrome c-552 (m) was greatly lower than that of cytochrome c-552 (s).

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on flavocytochromes c having sulfide-cytochrome c reductase activity. Flavocytochromes c occurs in two genera of photosynthetic sulfur bacteria— Chlorobium and Chromatium . Flavocytochromes c of the two organisms also show sulfur-reducing activity with benzyl viologen radical as an electron donor. Flavocytochrome c of Chlorobium ( Chl .) limicola f. thiosulfatophilum has a molecular weight of 58,000, and contains one molecule each of heme c and FAD per molecule. The absorption spectrum of the flavocytochrome shows a peak at 410 nm and shoulders at 450 and 480 nm in the oxidized form, and peaks at 417,523, and 553 nm in the reduced form. The affinity of the ferricytochrome for cyanide is so high that the spectral change reaches its maximum in the presence of cyanide equimolar to the cytochrome. The molecular weight of Chromatium flavocytochrome c is 67,000 and the protein is composed of one molecule each of the cytochrome and flavoprotein subunits. The flavoprotein subunit shows peaks at 276, 360, and 453 nm in the oxidized form.

Four different membrane-bound b-type cytochromes were found to occur in Halobacterium halobium strain L-33, and two of them, b-558 and b-562, were purified to homogeneity. Cytochrome b-558 showed absorption peaks at 414 and 526 nm in the oxidized form, and peaks at 425, 528, and 558 nm in the reduced form. Its alpha peak at 558 nm in the reduced form was asymmetric with a shoulder at around 554 nm. At liquid nitrogen temperature, the a the alpha peak was split into two peaks at 549 and 556 nm which appeared to be the alpha peaks of cytochromes c and b, respectively. The cytochrome contained 1 mol of protoheme in 28,500 g, and was composed of one molecule each of two subunits with molecular masses of 15.4 and 11.7 kDa, respectively. The heme seemed bound to the larger subunit. The cytochrome was very autoxidizable and its redox potential at pH 8.0 was -75 mV. Cytochrome b-562 showed absorption peaks at 417 and 530 nm in the oxidized form and peaks at 431, 531, and 562 nm in the reduced form. The cytochrome was composed of only one polypeptide (25 kDa) and seemed to contain one protoheme molecule per molecule.

A novel type of cytochrome c oxidase was purified to homogeneity from Pseudomonas aeruginosa which was grown aerobically. The purified oxidase contained two molecules of heme a, two atoms of copper, and one molecule of protoheme per molecule. One of the two heme a molecules in the oxidase reacted with carbon monoxide, so that the enzyme was of baa3-type. The oxidase molecule was composed of three subunits with molecular weights of 38,000, 57,000, and 82,000. Although the oxidase oxidized ferrocytochrome c-550 obtained from the bacterial cells grown aerobically, the oxidizing activity was not high. The "resting form" and the "pulsed form" of the oxidase were observed clearly with this enzyme, and the transition from the resting form to the pulsed form was accompanied by a distinct change of the enzymatic activity. The difference in the kinetics of the catalytic reactions between the two forms is discussed.

The oxygen reaction of Nitrosomonas europaea cytochrome c oxidase containing either 2Cu or 1Cu per two heme a molecules was investigated by the flow-flash technique at 20°C. The reaction profiles of the bacterial enzyme were essentially the same as those of bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase, although the rate of the primary oxygen compound formation was much slower. The 1Cu enzyme exhibited higher rates for both primary oxygen compound formation and intramolecular electron transfer than the 2Cu enzyme. This result clearly indicates that CuA is not essential functionally for the oxidation of ferrous heme a moieties, and suggests its structural importance in maintaining the molecular integrity of N. europaea cytochrome oxidase.

The minimal structural unit of cytochrome c oxidase purified from Thiobacillus novellus was composed of one molecule each of two subunits with molecular masses of 32 and 23 kDa, respectively, and the unit had one molecule of heme a and one atom of copper. In the presence of n-octyl-beta-D-thioglucoside, the oxidase existed as the monomeric form of the unit, while it occurred as the dimeric form of the unit in the presence of Tween 20. The monomeric form showed an active cytochrome c oxidizing activity and reduced molecular oxygen to water with ferrocytochrome c. Namely, it has been shown that the bacterial cytochrome c oxidase with one heme a molecule and one copper atom per molecule can catalyze oxidation of ferrocytochrome c with concomitant reduction of molecular oxygen to water.

The amino acid sequence of rusticyanin, a copper protein, purified from the iron-oxidizing bacterium Thiobacillus ferrooxidans was determined. Rusticyanin contained 154 amino acid residues in a single polypeptide chain and its molecular weight was calculated to be about 16400 based on the amino acid sequence. The N-terminal sequence up to the 20th residue of the protein apparently resembled those of Methylobacterium extorquens AMI amicyanin and poplar leaf plastocyanin rather than those of azurin family proteins. In the C-terminal region of the sequence, rusticyanin had one cysteine, one histidine and one methionine which are conserved through many copper proteins. In the middle region of the sequence, rusticyanin was not similar to any other copper protein. The sequence nearby His84 of rusticyanin was similar to those of other copper proteins to some extent. However, Asn which follows His84 and is highly conserved in other copper proteins did not exist in rusticyanin. Therefore, it seemed difficult to conclude on the basis of the results obtained in the present study that His84 in rusticyanin was the fourth ligand to the copper atom.

The membrane fraction of the facultative alkalophilic bacterium, Bacillus YN-2000, was found to contain considerably larger amounts of two c-type cytochromes, cytochromes c-553 and c-552, when the bacterium was grown at pH 10 than when it was grown at lower pHs (pH 7-9). In particular, cytochrome c-553 was present in a much higher amount in the cells grown at pH 10 than in those grown at pH 8. Cytochromes c-553 and c-552, which are membrane-bound proteins, were purified to electrophoretically homogeneous states from Bacillus YN-2000. Cytochrome c-553 showed absorption peaks at 553, 524, and 417 nm in the reduced form, and a peak at 411 nm in the oxidized form. Its molecular weight was estimated to be 10,500 from the results of SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. However, its molecular weight was estimated to be 127,000 by gel filtration. Therefore, it seemed to occur as an oligomer in solution. The isoelectric point of cytochrome c-553 was determined to be 3.9. Its midpoint redox potential was found to be +87 mV in the pH region from 6 to 8. Cytochrome c-553 reacted with cytochrome c oxidase of the bacterium and the reaction was greatly accelerated in the presence of poly-L-lysine. Cytochrome c-552 showed absorption peaks at 552, 521, and 416 nm in the reduced form, and a peak at 408 nm in the oxidized form. The cytochrome molecule seemed to be composed of six different subunits, with molecular masses of 40, 32, 19, 17, 14, and 12 kDa, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The amino acid sequences of Thiobacillus novellus and Nitrobacter winogradskyi cytochromes c have been compared with those of cytochromes c from several other organisms. The two bacterial cytochromes resemble eukaryotic cytochromes c; 49 amino-acid residues are identical between T. novellus and horse cytochromes c, and 50 residues identical between N. winogradskyi and horse cytochromes c. However, their reactivity with cow cytochrome c oxidase is about 80% lower than the reactivity of eukaryotic cytochromes c with the cow mitochondrial oxidase, while they react with yeast cytochrome c peroxidase as rapidly as eukaryotic cytochromes c. The numbers of identical amino-acid residues between T. novellus and animal cytochromes c are 45-53 and those between N. winogradskyi and animal cytochromes c 47-53, while those between the two bacterial cytochromes and yeast and protozoan cytochromes c are around 40. Thus, N. winogradskyi and T. novellus cytochromes c are more similar to animal cytochromes c than to yeast and protozoan cytochromes c on the basis of the amino-acid sequence.

From Thiobacillus ferrooxidans , an enzyme has been purified which catalyses oxidation of Fe 2+ ions with T. ferrooxidans cytochrome c -552 as the electron acceptor. The enzyme shows absorption peaks at 282 and 382 nm and contains 18-20 mol of nonhaem iron and 6 mol of inorganic sulphide in 63,000 g. The enzyme does not use rusticyanin as the electron acceptor for oxidation of Fe 2+ ions. T. ferrooxidans cytochrome c -552 has also been purified to an electrophoretically homogeneous state. It shows an absorption peak at 411 nm in the oxidized form and peaks at 417, 523 and 552 nm in the reduced form. Its molecular weight is about 14,000 and its redox potential at pH 7.0 is approx. +0.37 V.

aa3-Type cytochrome was purified from Halobacterium halobium (1). The cytochrome contained two heme a molecules per molecule but no copper. It did not show cytochrome c oxidase activity. One of the two heme a molecules in the cytochrome was reduced with ascorbate + TMPD, while the other was not reduced with this reducing reagents. The heme a molecule reducible with ascorbate + TMPD did not react with CO, while the heme a molecule reducible only with Na2S2O4 reacted with CO. Therefore, cytochrome a. or heme aA in the cytochrome was separated from cytochrome a3 or heme aB on the reduction with ascorbate + TMPD; the γ peaks of ferrocytochrome a and ferricytochrome a3 were observed spectrophotometrically in the absolute spectrum. As CuA is known to be unnecessary for cytochrome aa3 to oxidize ferrocytochrome c (2), these results mentioned above show that copper atom, CuB mediate electrons between heme aA and heme aB.

Hydroxylamine oxidoreductase [EC 1.7.3.4] from Nitrosomonas europaea was crystallized by the microdialysis method using ammonium sulfate. Its space group is P63 with cell dimensions of a = b = 96.4 A and c = 266.2 A. Its molecular weight was determined to be 190,000-195,000 by the X-ray small angle scattering and ultracentrifugal methods.

The structure of tetraheme cytochrome c3 isolated from Desulfovibrio vulgaris Miyazaki has been determined at 2.5 A resolution by an X-ray diffraction method. Protein phases were computed by the multiple isomorphous replacement method using the native and four heavy atom derivatives, anomalous scattering measurements of the latter being considered. The mean figure of merit was 0.77. Four heme groups are exposed on the surface of the molecule. There are some short helical segments in the polypeptide chain, and hair-pin turns are often observed at glycine and alanine residues.

The amino acid sequence of cytochrome c -550 from the chemountotroph, Nitrobacter agilis , was completed by using solid-phase sequencing and conventional procedures. The cytochrome was composed of 109 amino acid residues and its molecular weight was calculated to be 12375 including haem c . The cytochrome was homologous to eukaryotic cytochromes c and some photosynthetic bacterial cytochromes c 2 . In particular, its primary structure was very similar to that of Rhodopseudomonas viridis cytochrome c 2 . Some of its properties were compared with those of other cytochromes c on the basis of the primary structure.

The complete amino acid sequence of cytochrome c purified from the honeybee, Apis mellifera was determined. Only one molecular species of cytochrome c was found in the honeybee throughout its metamorphic stages. On the basis of a comparison of the amino acid sequence of honeybee cytochrome c with those of cytochromes c from other insects, it seems that the bee has evolutionarily appeared earlier than would be expected from the morphological and fossil evidence. If the classical phylogenetic relationships of the honeybee are correct, the evolutionary rate of cytochrome c must have been more rapid in the honeybee than in other insects.

A CO-binding hemoprotein was purified from Tetrahymena pyriformis and some of its properties were studied.The hemoprotein possessed protoheme, its molecular weight was about 11,000, and its isoelectric point was at pH 8.2. The oxidized form of the hemoprotein showed the Soret band at 406 nm and had no distinct peaks in the region of α- and β-bands, while the reduced form showed the peaks at 426, 527 and 560 nm. The hemoprotein reacted with CO resulting in shift of the Soret band from 426 to 420 nm. The CO-compound showed a broad band from 537 to 573 nm. The hemoprotein was not autoxidizable or oxygenated either. It did not show either of the cytochrome oxidase, peroxidase and NADH oxidase activities.It should be carefully determined whether or not cytochrome o is functioning as the terminal oxidase in T. pyriformis, as the CO-binding hemoprotein which does not react with molecular oxygen exists in the organism.

Cytochrome c oxidase (cytochrome aa3-type) [EC 1.9.3.1] was purified from Nitrobacter agilis to an electrophoretically homogeneous state and some of its properties were studied. The enzyme showed absorption peaks at 422, 598, and 840 nm in the oxidized form, and at 442 and 606 nm in the reduced form. The CO compound of the reduced enzyme showed peaks at 436 and 604 nm, and the latter peak had a shoulder at 599 nm. The enzyme possessed 1 mol of heme a and 1.6 g-atom of copper per 41,000 g, and was composed of two kinds of subunits of 51,000 and 31,000 daltons. These results show that the structurally minimal unit of the enzyme molecule is composed of one molecule each of the two subunits and contains 2 molecules of heme a and 2-3 atoms of copper. the enzyme rapidly oxidized ferrocytochromes c of several eukaryotes as well as N. agilis ferrocytochrome c-552. The reactions catalyzed by the enzyme were strongly inhibited by KCN. The reduction product of oxygen catalyzed by the enzyme was concluded to be water on the basis of the ratio of ferrocytochrome c oxidized to molecular oxygen consumed.