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On the role of ferredoxin and ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase in cyclic electron transport of spinach chloroplasts.

Antibodies prepared against purified spinach ferredoxin and ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase were used as specific inhibitors of electron-transfer reactions dependent on either ferredoxin or ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase; The possible role of both electron carriers in cyclic electron transport was checked using cytochrome b6 photoreactions as indicator. It could be demonstrated that the ferredoxin antibody inhibits cytochrome b6 photoreduction. Ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase, however, appears not to be involved in this pathway: reductase antibody in concentrations sufficient to completely inhibit electron transport to NADP+ had no effect on cytochrome b6 photoreduction. Quantitative treatment of the immunoassay data showed that osmotically shocked chloroplasts contain both bound ferredoxin and ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase in concentration approximately equal to that of cytochrome b6.

Chloroplasts

Ferredoxin-Sepharose 4B as a tool for the purification of ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase.

Ferredoxin immobilized on Sepharose 4B was prepared by reaction of CNBr-Sepharose 4B with spinach ferredoxin. The ferredoxin-Sepharose 4B conjugated ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase (NADPH: ferredoxin oxidoreductase, [EC 1.6.7.1]) in dilute buffer solution and released it in high salt concentrations. A novel method of preparation for the reductase was established by a combination of affinity adsorption on the ferredoxin-Sepharose 4B column with usual purification procedures. It was found using the new method, that there are two forms of ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase, FNR I and FNR II, in spinach. Comparative studies of the two components suggest that FNR I may be a dimer of FNR II.

Chromatography, Affinity

Reactions of antibodies against ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase and plastocyanin with spinach chloroplasts.

Purified antisera against ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase and plastocyanin agglutinated osmotically shocked and washed spinach chloroplasts, prepared according to standard procedures. The monomeric antibody (immunoglobulin G fraction) of the reductase antiserum agglutinated chloroplasts specifically and directly, indicating that protruding structures (for example, the coupling factor) do not act as steric hindrances as has been suggested. With ferredoxin antiserum, the presence of a pentameric antibody (immunoglobulin M fraction) was obligatory to observe a positive agglutination reaction. Immunoglobulin G only inhibited ferredoxin-dependent reactions, like NADP+-photoreduction, but did not cause agglutination. Ferredoxin seems to be located in depressions of the membrane, possibly caused by a partial release of this protein in shocked chloroplasts. Similar results were obtained with purified immunoglobulins from a plastocyanin antiserum. Again the immunoglobulin G fraction inhibited electron transport reactions catalyzed by plastocyanin, whereas immunoglobulin M showed a positive agglutination, but had no influence on electron transport. It is concluded that ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase and plastocyanin are peripheral electron transport components, located at the outer thylakoid membrane.

Agglutination Tests

Properties of common wheat ferredoxin, and a comparison with ferredoxins from related species of triticum and aegilops.

Wheat ferredoxin was purified from the leaves of common wheat (Triticum aestivum). The absorption spectrum showed maxima at 465, 425, 332, and 278 nm. The absorbance ratio, A425 nm/A278 nm was 0.49, and the millimolar extinction coefficient at 425 nm was 10.8 mM-1. cm-1. The amino acid composition was determined to be Lys5, His2, Arg1, Asp11, Thr5, Ser7, Glu18, Pro5, Gly6, Ala7, Cys5, Val7, Met1, Ile4, Leu7, Tyr4, Phe1, and Trp1. The total number of amino acid residues was 97. The molecular weight was calculated from the amino acid composition to be 10,829, including iron and sulfur atoms. This value was confirmed by other methods, which were based on the contents of non-heme iron and of terminal amino acid. The N-terminal amino acid was alanine, and the C-terminal amino acid sequence was -Glu-Leu-Thr-AlaCOOH. Comparative studies were performed between T. aestivum ferredoxin and ferredoxins isolated from closely related species; these were T. aegilopoides, T. durum, Ae. squarrosa, and Ae. ovata. No significant differences in the properties of these ferredoxins were detected. It was also shown that these ferredoxins are immunologically homologous. It is, therefore, likely that one molecular species of ferredoxin is distributed through two genera of Triticum and Aegilops.

Amino Acids

Studies on the ferredoxin-ferredoxin-NADP reductase complex: kinetic and solvent perturbation studies on the location of sulfhydryl and aromatic amino acid residues.

The molecular weight of spinach ferredoxin-NADP reductase [EC 1.6.99.4] was estimated to be 33,100 by the sedimentation equilibrium method. On the basis of this molecular weight, the amino acid composition of the reductase was determined. The reactivity of ferredoxin toward p-chloromercuribenzoate was investigated. By measuring the time course of the reaction, 1 mol of ferredoxin was found to react with about 8 mol of p-chloromercuribenzoate in 10 min. Under low ionic strength conditions (1 mM NaCl), the second-order rate constants of this reaction determined spectrophotometrically at 420 and 250 nm were 3,640 and 3,690 M-1.S-1, respectively; under high ionic strength conditions (100 mM NaCl), these rate constants were 1,360 and 1,270 M-1.S-1, respectively. In the presence of the reductase, the rate constants under low and high ionic strength conditions were 54 and 1,040 M-1.S-1, respectively. By investigation of the solvent perturbation effects on the aromatic amino acid residues with 20% ethylene glycol, it was found that ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP reductase, and the complex between these proteins had 2.8, 6.3, and 3.8 mol of exposed tyrosyl residues per mol of protein, respectively. It therefore seems likely that about 5 tyrosyl residues may exist in the neighborhood of the binding site of the complex of these proteins.

Amino Acids

Quantitative determination of ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase and plastocyanin in spinach chloroplasts.

Ferredoxin, ferredoxin-NADP+ reductase and plastocyanin extracted from spinach chloroplasts were determined by quantitative immunoelectrophoresis in an antiserum-containing gel. The advantage of the method is its high sensitivity and specificity so that crude extracts can be directly analysed. It requires, however, purified electron carriers and the corresponding monospecific antibodies. The ratios of ferredoxin to reductase to plastocyanin approximated 5:3:4, respectively, per cytochrome f or P700 in spinach chloroplasts.

Chloroplasts

Characterization of two soluble ferredoxins as distinct from bound iron-sulfur proteins in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodospirillum rubrum.

In an earlier investigation (Shanmugam, K. T., Buchanan, B. B., and Arnon, D. I. (1972) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 256, 477-486) the extraction of ferredoxin from Rhodospirillum rubrum cells with the aid of a detergent (Triton X-100) and acetone revealed the existence of two types of ferredoxin (I and II) and led to the conclusion that both are membrane-bound. In the present investigation, ferredoxin and acid-labile sulfur analyses of photosynthetic membranes (chromatophores) and soluble protein extracts of the photosynthetic bacteria R. rubrum and Rhodopseudomonas spheroides showed that ferredoxins I and II are primarily components of the soluble protein fraction. After their removal, washed R. rubrum chromatophores were found to contain a considerable amount of tightly bound iron-sulfur protein(s), as evidenced by acid-labile sulfur and electron paramagnetic resonance analyses. Thus, like all other photosynthetic cells examined to date, R. rubrum cells contain both soluble ferredoxins and iron-sulfur proteins tightly bound to photosynthetic membranes. The molecular weights of ferredoxins I and II from photosynthetically grown R. rubrum cells were found to be 8,800 and 14,500, respectively. Using these molecular weights, the molar extinction coefficients at 390 nm for ferredoxins I and II were determined to be 30.3 and 17.2 mM-1 CM-1, respectively. Ferredoxin I contains 8 non-heme iron and 8 acid-labile sulfur atoms per molecule; ferredoxin II contains 4 non-heme iron and 4 acid-labile sulfur atoms per molecule. Ferredoxin I was found only in photosynthetically grown cells whereas ferredoxin II was present in both light- and dark-grown cells. Ferredoxin II from both light- and dark-grown cells has the same molecular weight (14,500) and absorption spectrum and has 4 iron and 4 acid-labile sulfur atoms per molecule. Low temperature electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of oxidized and photoreduced ferredoxins I and II from R. rubrum were recorded. The EPR spectrum of oxidized ferredoxin II exhibited a single resonance line at g = 2.012. Oxidized ferredoxin I, however, exhibited a spectrum that may arise from the superimposition of two resonance lines near g = 2.012. Photoreduced ferredoxin II displayed a rhombic EPR spectrum with a g value of 1.94. Photoreduced ferredoxin I exhibited a similar EPR spectrum at a temperature of 16 K, but when the temperature was lowered to 4.5 K the spectrum of ferredoxin I changed. This temperature-dependent spectrum may result from a weak spin-spin interaction between two iron-sulfur clusters. These results are consistent with the conclusion that R. rubrum ferredoxins I and II are, respectively, 8 iron/8 sulfur and 4 iron/4sulfur proteins.

Bacterial Chromatophores

Comparative studies on two ferredoxins from the cyanobacterium Nostoc strain MAC.

Two ferredoxins were isolated from the cyanobacterium Nostoc strain MAC grown autotrophically in the light or heterotrophically in the dark. In either case approximately three times as much ferredoxin I as ferredoxin II was obtained. Both ferredoxins had absorption maxima at 276, 282 (shoulder), 330, 423 and 465 nm in the oxidized state, and each possessed a single 2 Fe-2S active centre. Their isoelectric points were approx. 3.2. The midpoint redox potentials of the ferredoxins differed markedly; that of ferredoxin I was --350mV and that of ferredoxin II was --445mV, at pH 8.0. The midpoint potential of ferredoxin II was unusual in being pH dependent. Ferredoxin I was most active in supporting NADP+ photoreduction by chloroplasts, whereas ferredoxin II was somewhat more active in pyruvate decarboxylation by the phosphoroclastic system of Clostridum pasteurianum. Though the molecular weights of the ferredoxins determined by ultracentrifugation were the same within experimetnal error, the amino acid compositions showed marked differences. The N-terminal amino acid sequences of ferredoxins I and II were determined by means of an automatic sequencer. There are 11--12 differences between the sequences of the first 32 residues. It appears that the two ferredoxins have evolved separately to fulfil different roles in the organism.

Amino Acid Sequence