Modulation of the tight binding of carboxyarabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate to the large subunit of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

Transcription control of ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase and adjacent genes in Anabaena species

The gene encoding ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO) activase (rca) was uniformly localized downstream from the genes encoding the large and small subunits of RubisCO (rbcL and rbcS) in three strains of Anabaena species. However, two open reading frames (ORF1 and ORF2), situated between rbcS and rca in Anabaena sp. strain CA, were not found in the intergenic region of Anabaena variabilis and Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120. During autotrophic growth of Anabaena cells, rca and rbc transcripts accumulated in the light and diminished in the dark; light-dependent expression of these genes was not affected by the nitrogen source and the concentration of exogenous CO2 supplied to the cells. When grown on fructose, rca- and rbc-specific transcripts accumulated in A. variabilis regardless of whether the cells were illuminated. Transcript levels, however, were much lower in dark-grown heterotrophic cultures than in photoheterotrophic cultures. In photoheterotrophic cultures, the expression of the rca and rbc genes was similar to that in cultures grown with CO2 as the sole source of carbon. Although the rbcL-rbcS and rca genes are linked and are in the same transcriptional orientation in Anabaena strains, hybridization of rbc and rca to distinct transcripts suggested that these genes are not cotranscribed, consistent with the results of primer extension and secondary structure analysis of the nucleotide sequence. Transcription from ORF1 and ORF2 was not detected under the conditions examined, and the function of these putative genes remains unknown.

Catalytic properties of recombinant octameric, hexadecameric, and heterologous cyanobacterial/bacterial ribulose- 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase

The recent isolation of a catalytically competent recombinant octameric core of the hexadecameric ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase from the cyanobacterium Anacystis nidulans (Synechococcus) (B. Lee and F. R. Tabita, 1990, Biochemistry 29, 9352-9357) has provided a useful system for examining the properties of this enzyme in the absence of small subunits. Unlike most sources of hexadecameric ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase, the nonactivated Anacystis holoenzyme was not inhibited markedly by preincubation with ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate. This was also true for the Anacystis octameric core and a heterologous recombinant enzyme that comprised large subunits from Anacystis and small subunits from the bacterium Alcaligenes eutrophus, suggesting that substrate-mediated inactivation is not influenced by small subunits. In addition, the CO2/O2 specificity factor was not affected by the source of the small subunits incorporated into the structure of the hexadecameric protein, in agreement with previous in vitro heterologous reconstitution studies. The activated octameric Anacystis enzyme, however, was significantly more sensitive to inhibition by the phosphorylated effector 6-phosphogluconate than were the hexadecameric Alcaligenes and Anacystis enzymes and the heterologous Anacystis-Alcaligenes hybrid.

Purification and characterization of large and small subunits of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase expressed separately in Escherichia coli

Procedures were developed for 95 and 80% purification to homogeneity of the large subunit (L) and small subunit (S) of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (L8S8) from Synechococcus PCC 6301, each expressed separately in Escherichia coli. Purified L had a low specific activity in the absence of S (0.075 mumol CO2 fixed/mg holoenzyme/min). Following elution on a Pharmacia Superose 6 or 12 gel filtration column, 50% of the purified L appeared as the octamer, L8. The rest was in equilibrium with lower polymeric species and/or was retained on the column. Large and small subunits assembled rapidly into the L8S8 holoenzyme that had high specific activities, 6.2 and 3.1 mumol CO2 fixed/mg holoenzyme/min for the homologous Synechococcus L8S8 and the hybrid Synechococcus L-pea S L8S8, respectively. The CO2 dependence for carbamylation of L8 was compared to that of L8S8 as a function of pH and CO2 concentration. The pH dependence indicated an apparent pKa for L8 of 8.28 and for L8S8 of 8.15, suggesting that S may influence the pKa of the lysine involved in carbamylation. The Kact for CO2 at pH 8.4 were similar for L8 (13.5 microM) and L8S8 (15.5 microM). L8 bound 2-[14C]carboxy-D-arabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate (CABP) tightly so that most of the bound [14C]CABP survived gel filtration. A major amount of the L8-[14C]CABP complex appeared as larger polymeric aggregates when eluted in the presence of E. coli protein.