Inhibitory effects of myxothiazol and 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide on the auxiliary electron transport pathways of Rhodobacter capsulatus

Voltammetric characterization of the aerobic energy-dissipating nitrate reductase of Paracoccus pantotrophus: exploring the activity of a redox-balancing enzyme as a function of electrochemical potential

Paracoccus pantotrophus expresses two nitrate reductases associated with respiratory electron transport, termed NapABC and NarGHI. Both enzymes derive electrons from ubiquinol to reduce nitrate to nitrite. However, while NarGHI harnesses the energy of the quinol/nitrate couple to generate a transmembrane proton gradient, NapABC dissipates the energy associated with these reducing equivalents. In the present paper we explore the nitrate reductase activity of purified NapAB as a function of electrochemical potential, substrate concentration and pH using protein film voltammetry. Nitrate reduction by NapAB is shown to occur at potentials below approx. 0.1 V at pH 7. These are lower potentials than required for NarGH nitrate reduction. The potentials required for Nap nitrate reduction are also likely to require ubiquinol/ubiquinone ratios higher than are needed to activate the H(+)-pumping oxidases expressed during aerobic growth where Nap levels are maximal. Thus the operational potentials of P. pantotrophus NapAB are consistent with a productive role in redox balancing. A Michaelis constant (K(M)) of approx. 45 muM was determined for NapAB nitrate reduction at pH 7. This is in line with studies on intact cells where nitrate reduction by Nap was described by a Monod constant (K(S)) of less than 15 muM. The voltammetric studies also disclosed maximal NapAB activity in a narrow window of potential. This behaviour is resistant to change of pH, nitrate concentration and inhibitor concentration and its possible mechanistic origins are discussed.

Inhibitor binding within the NarI subunit (cytochrome bnr) of Escherichia coli nitrate reductase A

We have used inhibitors and site-directed mutants to investigate quinol binding to the cytochrome bnr (NarI) of Escherichia coli nitrate reductase (NarGHI). Both stigmatellin and 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide (HOQNO) inhibit menadiol:nitrate oxidoreductase activity with I50 values of 0.25 and 6 microM, respectively, and prevent the generation of a NarGHI-dependent proton electrochemical potential across the cytoplasmic membrane. These inhibitors have little effect on the rate of reduction of the two hemes of NarI (bL and bH), but have an inhibitory effect on the extent of nitrate-dependent heme reoxidation. No quinol-dependent heme bH reduction is detected in a mutant lacking heme bL (NarI-H66Y), whereas a slow but complete heme bL reduction is detected in a mutant lacking heme bH (NarI-H56R). This is consistent with physiological quinol binding and oxidation occurring at a site (QP) associated with heme bL which is located toward the periplasmic side of NarI. Optical and EPR spectroscopies performed in the presence of stigmatellin or HOQNO provide further evidence that these inhibitors bind at a heme bL-associated QP site. These results suggest a model for electron transfer through NarGHI that involves quinol binding and oxidation in the vicinity of heme bL and electron transfer through heme bH to the cytoplasmically localized membrane-extrinsic catalytic NarGH dimer.

Electron transport-dependent taxis in Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Rhodobacter sphaeroides showed chemotaxis to the terminal electron acceptors oxygen and dimethyl sulfoxide, and the responses to these effectors were shown to be influenced by the relative activities of the different electron transport pathways. R. sphaeroides cells tethered by their flagella showed a step-down response to a decrease in the oxygen or dimethyl sulfoxide concentration when using them as terminal acceptors. Bacteria using photosynthetic electron transport, however, showed a step-down response to oxygen addition. Addition of the proton ionophore carbonyl cyanide 4-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone did not cause a transient behavioral response, although it decreased the electrochemical proton gradient (delta p) and increased the rate of electron transport. However, removal of the ionophore, which caused an increase in delta p and a decrease in the electron transport rate, resulted in a step-down response. Together, these data suggest that behavioral responses of R. sphaeroides to electron transport effectors are caused by changes in the rate of electron transport rather than changes in delta p.

The identification of cytochromes involved in the transfer of electrons to the periplasmic NO3- reductase of Rhodobacter capsulatus and resolution of a soluble NO3(-)-reductase--cytochrome-c552 redox complex

The involvement of cytochromes in the electron-transport pathway to the periplasmic NO3- reductase of Rhodobacter capsulatus was studied in cells grown photoheterotrophically in the presence of nitrate with butyrate as carbon source. The specific rate of NO3- reduction by such cells was five times higher than when malate was carbon source. Reduced minus NO3(-)-oxidized spectra of cells had peaks in the alpha-band region for cytochromes at 552 nm and 559 nm, indicating the involvement of c- and b-type cytochromes in the electron-transport pathway to NO3-. The total ferricyanide-oxidizable cytochrome that was also oxidized in the steady state by NO3- was greater in cells grown with butyrate rather than malate. Low concentrations of cyanide inhibited NO3- reduction. Neither CN-, nor a previously characterized inhibitor of NO3- reduction, 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide, prevented the oxidation of the cytochromes by NO3-. This suggested a site of action for these inhibitors on the reducing side of the b- and c-type cytochromes involved in electron transport to the NO3- reductase. The predominant cytochrome in a periplasmic fraction prepared from cells of R. capsulatus grown on butyrate medium was cytochrome c2 but a c-type cytochrome with an alpha-band reduced absorbance maximum at 552 nm could also be identified. The reduced form of this latter cytochrome, but not that of cytochrome c2, was oxidized upon addition of NO3- to a periplasmic fraction. The NO3(-)-oxidizable cytochrome co-purified with the periplasmic NO3- reductase through fractionation procedures that included ammonium sulphate precipitation, gel filtration at low and high salt concentrations, and ion-exchange chromatography. A NO3(-)-reductase-cytochrome-c552 redox complex that comprised two types of polypeptide, a nitrate reductase subunit and a c-type cytochrome subunit, was purified. The polypeptides were separated when the complex was chromatographed on a phenyl-Sepharose hydrophobic chromatography column.

Electron transport pathways to nitrous oxide in Rhodobacter species

1. Electron transport components involved in nitrous oxide reduction in several strains of Rhodobacter capsulatus and in the denitrifying strain of Rhodobacter sphaeroides (f. sp. denitrificans) have been investigated. Detailed titrations with antimycin A and myxothiazol, inhibitors of the cytochrome bc1 complex, show that part of the electron flow to nitrous oxide passes through this complex. The sensitivity to myxothiazol varies between strains and growth conditions of R. capsulatus; the higher rates of nitrous oxide reduction correlate with the higher sensitivities. Partial inhibition of the nitrous oxide reductase enzyme with azide decreased the sensitivity to myxothiazol of the strains that had the highest nitrous oxide reductase activity. 2. Inhibition of nitrous oxide reduction in cells of R. capsulatus by myxothiazol could be restored under dark conditions by addition of N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-p-phenylene diamine. The highest activities observed after addition of this electron carrier were found in the strains that had the highest sensitivity to myxothiazol, consistent with the premise that this inhibitor is more effective at the higher flux rates to nitrous oxide. 3. Addition of nitrous oxide to cells of R. capsulatus strain N22DNAR+ under darkness caused oxidation of both b- and c-type cytochromes. The oxidation of b cytochromes was less pronounced in the presence of myxothiazol, consistent with a role for the cytochrome bc1 complex in the electron pathway to nitrous oxide. Ferricyanide, in the absence of myxothiazol, caused a similar extent of oxidation of b cytochromes, but a greater oxidation of c-type, suggesting that there was a pool of c-type cytochrome that was not oxidisable by nitrous oxide. The time course showed that both the b- and c-type cytochromes were oxidised within a few seconds of the addition of nitrous oxide. During the following seconds there was a partial re-reduction of the cytochromes such that after approximately 1 min a lower steady-state of oxidation was attained and this persisted until the nitrous oxide was exhausted. 4. A mutant, MTCBC1, of R. capsulatus that specifically lacked a functional cytochrome bc1 complex reduced nitrous oxide, albeit at 30% of the rate shown by the parent strain MT1131. A reduced minus nitrous-oxide-oxidised difference spectrum for MTCBC1 in the absence of myxothiazol was similar to the corresponding difference spectrum observed for strain N22DNAR+ in the presence of myxothiazol. It is suggested that these difference spectra identify the cytochrome components, including a b-type, involved in a pathway that is alternative to, and independent of, the cytochrome bc1 complex.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Phenotypic and genetic characterization of cytochrome c2 deficient mutants of Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Rhodobacter sphaeroides mutants lacking cytochrome c2 (cyt c2) have been constructed by site-specific recombination between the wild-type genomic cyt c2 structural gene (cycA) and a suicide plasmid containing a defective cyc operon where deletion of cycA sequences was accompanied by insertion of a KnR gene. Southern blot analysis confirmed that the wild-type cyc operon was exchanged for the inactivated cycA gene, presumably by double-reciprocal recombination. Spectroscopic and immunochemical measurements, together with genetic complementation, established that the inability of these mutants to grow under photosynthetic conditions was due to the lack of cyt c2. The cyt c2 deficient strains reduced photooxidized reaction center complexes approximately 4 orders of magnitude more slowly than the parent strain. The phenotype and characteristics of these mutants were restored when a wild-type cyc operon was introduced on a stable low copy number plasmid. These experiments provide the first genetic evidence for the obligatory role of cyt c2 in wild-type cyclic photosynthetic electron transport in R. sphaeroides. We have also observed that the R. sphaeroides cyt c2 deficient strains spontaneously gave rise to photosynthetically competent pseudorevertants at a frequency which suggests that the cyt c2 independent photosynthetic electron transport which suppresses the phenotype of the cyt c2 deficient strains was the result of a single mutation elsewhere in the genome.