Design of a ruthenium-cytochrome c derivative to measure electron transfer to the initial acceptor in cytochrome c oxidase.

A ruthenium-labeled cytochrome c derivative was prepared to meet two design criteria: the ruthenium group must transfer an electron rapidly to the heme group, but not alter the interaction with cytochrome c oxidase. Site-directed mutagenesis was used to replace His39 on the backside of yeast C102T iso-1-cytochrome c with a cysteine residue, and the single sulfhydryl group was labeled with (4-bromomethyl-4' methylbipyridine) (bis-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) to form Ru-39-cytochrome c (cyt c). There is an efficient pathway for electron transfer from the ruthenium group to the heme group of Ru-39-cyt c comprising 13 covalent bonds and one hydrogen bond. Electron transfer from the excited state Ru(II*) to ferric heme c occurred with a rate constant of (6.0 +/- 2.0) x 10(5) s-1, followed by electron transfer from ferrous heme c to Ru(III) with a rate constant of (1.0 +/- 0.2) x 10(6) s-1. Laser excitation of a complex between Ru-39-cyt c and beef cytochrome c oxidase in low ionic strength buffer (5 mM phosphate, pH7) resulted in electron transfer from photoreduced heme c to CuA with a rate constant of (6 +/- 2) x 10(4) s-1, followed by electron transfer from CuA to heme a with a rate constant of (1.8 +/- 0.3) x 10(4) s-1. Increasing the ionic strength to 100 mM leads to bimolecular kinetics as the complex is dissociated. The second-order rate constant is (2.5 +/- 0.4) x 10(7) M-1s-1 at 230 mM ionic strength, nearly the same as that of wild-type iso-1-cytochrome c.

Adrenodoxin interaction with adrenodoxin reductase and cytochrome P-450scc. Cross-linking of protein complexes and effects of adrenodoxin modification by 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide.

Modification of the three carboxyl groups on adrenodoxin using a water-soluble carbodiimide (1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide) caused a weakening of the binding of this iron-sulfur protein to both its electron donor protein, adrenodoxin reductase, and its electron acceptor protein, cytochrome P-450scc. Based upon the proximity of the modified groups, the site on adrenodoxin for interaction with the other two proteins is likely to be either identical or highly overlapping, and formation of a ternary complex among the proteins is precluded. Upon incubation of adrenodoxin and either adrenodoxin reductase or cytochrome P-450 plus the carbodiimide (1:1), covalently cross-linked species were formed. When all three proteins were incubated with the cross-linker, only the binary complexes were formed, and no higher order (e.g. 1:1:1 or 1:2:1) complexes were seen. These studies indicate that adrenodoxin forms exclusive binary complexes with its electron transfer partner proteins, and thus provide a physical explanation for the proposed role of adrenodoxin as a mobile electron shuttle between NADPH-adrenodoxin reductase and cytochrome P-450scc.

Identification of specific carboxylate groups on adrenodoxin that are involved in the interaction with adrenodoxin reductase.

Modification of bovine adrenodoxin with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) dramatically inhibited the reaction with adrenodoxin reductase (EC 1.18.1.2). The modification did not cause any change in the visible spectrum of adrenodoxin, indicating that the iron-sulfur center was not perturbed. Furthermore, the anomalous fluorescence of Tyr 82 was not changed in either intensity or wavelength. The inhibition was accompanied by the covalent incorporation of 14C-labeled EDC into adrenodoxin. The sites modified by EDC were determined by hydrolyzing adrenodoxin with either trypsin or Staphylococcus aureus protease and separating the resulting peptides by reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography. The major carboxyl groups modified were found to be at Glu 74, Asp 79, and Asp 86, which are located in a sequence containing a high negative charge density. We propose that the conversion of negatively charged carboxylate groups at these residues to bulky, positively charged EDC-carboxyl groups inhibits the reaction with the reductase. EDC was also found to cross-link adrenodoxin to cytochrome c in yields up to 90%. The cross-links were found to involve the formation of amide linkages between carboxyl groups on adrenodoxin and the lysine amino groups surrounding the heme crevice of cytochrome c.

The use of a water-soluble carbodiimide to cross-link cytochrome c to plastocyanin.

A water-soluble carbodiimide, 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide, has been used to cross-link horse heart cytochrome c to spinach chloroplast plastocyanin. The complex was formed in yields up to 90% and was found to have a stoichiometry of 1 mol plastocyanin per mol cytochrome c. The cytochrome c in the complex was fully reducible by ascorbate and potassium ferrocyanide, and had a redox potential only 25 mV less than that of native cytochrome c. The complex was nearly completely inactive towards succinate-cytochrome c reductase and cytochrome c oxidase, suggesting that the heme crevice region of cytochrome c was blocked. We propose that the carbodiimide promoted the formation of amide cross-links between lysine amino groups surrounding the heme crevice of cytochrome c and complementary carboxyl groups on plastocyanin. It is of interest that the high-affinity site for cytochrome c binding on bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase has recently been found to involve a sequence of subunit II with some homology to the copper-binding sequence of plastocyanin.

Interaction between adrenodoxin and cytochrome c.

The reduction of horse heart ferricytochrome c by reduced adrenodoxin was found by stopped flow spectroscopy to follow second order kinetics with a rate constant of 7.8 X 10(6) M-1 s-1 in Tris/Cl, pH 7.5, at an ionic strength of 0.2 M, 29 degrees C. The temperature dependence of the rate constant was used to determine that the activation parameters were delta H++++ = 7.7 kcal/mol and delta S = -1.5 cal/mol degrees K. The rate constant decreased rapidly with increasing ionic strength, indicating that electrostatic interactions between the two proteins were important to the reaction. The contribution of individual lysine amino groups to the electrostatic interaction was determined by measuring the reaction rate of specifically trifluoroacetylated or trifluoromethylphenylcarbamylated cytochrome c derivatives. Modification of lysines 13, 27, 72, and 79 surrounding the heme crevice decreased the reaction rate by about 2-fold, while modification of lysine amino groups in other regions of cytochrome c had decreasing effects as the distance from the heme crevice was increased. The interaction domain therefore involves specific complementary charge interactions between lysine amino groups immediately surrounding the heme crevice of cytochrome c and carboxylate groups on adrenodoxin. A semi-empirical relationship was developed for the total electrostatic interaction between the two proteins which is in quantitative agreement with both the ionic strength dependence of the reaction rate and the specific lysine modification studies.

Incorporation of galactose into galactosyltransferase.

Bovine skim milk galactosyltransferase (EC 2.4.1.22) retained its catalytic activity after partial enzymatic removal of sialic acid and galactose. Desialylated and degalactosylated galactosyltransferase was a galactosyl acceptor in the galactosyltransferase reaction. [14C]Galactose from UDP-[14C]galactose was incorporated into the carbohydrate-depleted galactosyltransferase by native galactosyltransferase. The results suggest that galactosyltransferase participates in the biosynthesis of its glycopeptides of the sialic acid-galactose-N-acetylglucosamine type.

Inhibition and inactivation of bovine mammary and liver UDP-galactose-4-epimerases.

Bovine liver and mammary UDP-galactose-4-epimerases were investigated with respect to various inhibitors and inactivators. Uridine nucleotides and NADH are potent inhibitors with Ki values in the low micromolar range. The NAD+/NADH ratio may be an important physiological control mechanism for it affects markedly the activity of the enzyme with 50% inhibition occurring at a ratio of 20:1. In the presence of uridine nucleotides binding of NADH to the epimerases is enhanced. Consequently, the effect of changes in the NAD+/NADH ratio in vivo would not be immediately apparent as uridine nucleotides would slow down the displacement of NADH by NAD+. Neither uridine nor galactose 1-phosphate inhibits the purified enzymes as previously reported with the impure liver enzyme. Uridine nucleotides provide almost total protection against the apparent first order inactivation of the epimerases by trypsin and allow determination of dissociation constants. NAD+ partially protects against trypsin inactivation. Inactivation with various sulfhydryl reagents is complex and the results indicate that at least three sulfhydryl groups may be modified before total inactivation occurs. Partial inactivation occurs upon modification of the epimerases with 2-hydroxy-5-nitrogenzyl bromide. Some protection against this modification is provided by the combination of NAD+ and UDP.