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The reaction of ferrous leghemoglobin with hydrogen peroxide to form leghemoglobin(IV).

Ferrous leghemoglobin reacts with hydrogen peroxide to form the stable product, leghemoglobin(IV). The reaction follows second order kinetics (k = 2.24 X 10(4) M-1 S-1 at 20 degrees C) and may be regarded as a single-step, two-electron oxidation. Ferric leghemoglobin is not an intermediate. The oxidation state of leghemoglobin(IV) is established by reductive titration with dithionite; 2 eq of dithionite are required to convert 1 mol of leghemoglobin(IV) to ferrous leghemoglobin. An outstanding property of leghemoglobin(IV) is its stability, little change is noted after 12 h at 25 degrees C. Leghemoglobin(IV) differs from the higher oxidation states of other hemoglobins and myoglobins in that it does not react with hydrogen peroxide to form the oxygenated protein.

Dithionite

Leghemoglobin. Low temperature optical spectra of acid and alkaline forms of leghemoglobin(IV). Configuration of the heme.

Leghemoglobin(IV), the derivative of leghemoglobin at the formal oxidation state IV, when cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature exhibits radically different spectra at acid and alkaline pH. The acid and alkaline forms are freely interconvertible. The optical spectrum of the acid form is closely similar to optical spectra of the red higher oxidation states of horseradish and cytochrome c peroxidases, showing that the configuration of the heme iron is the same throughout this family of compounds. That configuration is believed to be Fe(IV) in a porphyrin environment. The optical spectrum of the alkaline form of leghemoglobin(IV) recalls that of alkaline low spin ferric leghemoglobin. Near infrared spectra of leghemoglobin(IV), myoglobin(IV), and the higher oxidation states of the peroxidases are featureless to 1300 nm, suggesting a common structural feature. The acid form of leghemoglobin(IV), seen in fluid buffer as a transient species at pH 5 or less, is conveniently generated by cooling a solution of the more stable alkaline form in borate buffer to liquid nitrogen temperature. At this temperature borate buffers become acid.

Freezing

Separation and determination of the relative concentrations of the homogeneous components of soybean leghemoglobin by isoelectric focusing.

The multiple components of soybean ferric leghemoglobin are readily separated by analytical and preparative flat bed isoelectric focusing in both the presence and also the absence of the ligand nicotinate. In the presence of nicotinate the separation by isoelectric focusing is more rapid and results in sharper bands of the very stable ferric leghemoglobin nicotinate complexes. The separation is sensitive enough to permit analytical experiments on leghemoglobin from single nodules. Leghemoglobins a and c1 prepared by ion exchange chromatography are homogeneous by isoelectric focusing criteria. Leghemoglobin c2 prepared by ion exchange chromatography is an approximately 1:2 mixture of leghemoglobins c2 and c3. Leghemoglobin d consists of three components. The ratio of leghemoglobin a to leghemoglobin c3 content increases dramatically as very young nodules mature. The increase in relative leghemoglobin a content suggests that leghemoglobin a might be required for regulation of nodule O2 concentration only when the nodule structure is complex. The ratio of leghemoglobin c1 content to leghemoglobin c3 content increases somewhat during the early period of nodule development, while the ratio of leghemoglobin c2 content to leghemoglobin c3 content increases slowly throughout nodule development. Ratios of leghemoglobin b content to leghemoglobin a content and of total leghemoglobin d content to total leghemoglobin c content were almost independent of nodule age. Leghemoglobins a and b might be related biosynthetically, as might leghemoglobins c and d.

Hemeproteins

CO and O2 complexes of soybean leghemoglobins: pH effects upon infrared and visible spectra. Comparisons with CO and O2 complexes of myoglobin and hemoglobin.

The effects of pH upon infrared spectra [CO stretching frequency (vco) region] and visible spectra of the CO complexes of soybean leghemoglobins a, c1, and c2, sperm whale myoglobin, and human hemoglobin A are reported. The vco for leghemoglobin--CO complexes was 1947.5 cm-1 at neutral pH. At acid pH myoglobin-- and hemoglobin--CO complexes developed vco bands at 1966--1968 cm-1, whereas leghemoglobin--CO complexes developed vco bands at approximately 1957 cm-1. All pKapp co values determined by pH-dependent variation of vco fell in the range 4.0--4.6. The pKapp co values determined from visible spectra were consistent with vco-determined values except for that of myoglobin--CO (visible pKapp co = 5.8). The pKapp co values in the 4.0--4.6 range appear to be pK values of the distal histidines, while the visible pKapp co of myoglobin--CO appears to be the pK of a group other than the distal and proximal histidines. The data are consistent with a model in which protonation of the distal histidine permits protein-free heme FeCO geometry in leghemoglobin--CO complexes but not in myoglobin-- or hemoglobin--CO complexes. Thus the heme pockets of leghemoglobins appear to be more flexible than the heme pockets of myoglobin and hemoglobin. The effects of pH upon visible spectra of the O2 complexes of soybean leghemoglobins a, c1, and c2, sperm whale myoglobin, and human hemoglobin A also are reported. pKapp o2 values of approximately 5.5 (leghemoglobins) and 4.4 (hemoglobin) are probably the pK values of the distal histidines. Comparisons of pKapp o2 values with pKapp co values indicate a more flexible heme pocket in leghemoglobins than in hemoglobin. The O2 complex of leghemoglobin c2 differed significantly from the O2 complexes of leghemoglobins a and c1 in visible spectra and titration behavior. These differences might be associated with the small structural differences in the region between the E and F helixes of leghemoglobins.

Animals

An alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) cDNA encoding an acidic leghemoglobin (MsLb3).

We have found an alfalfa cDNA clone that encodes an acidic leghemoglobin. To date, 14 alfalfa leghemoglobin clones have been identified. Five different leghemoglobin 'components' have been biochemically defined on the basis of their pI. A higher-resolution comparison, provided by sequence data analysis, identifies six leghemoglobin 'classes'. All 14 leghemoglobins are assigned to the six 'classes', which can be distributed among the five leghemoglobin 'components'. The newly identified leghemoglobin is the only member of a sixth 'class' of leghemoglobins, and it also is the only member of one of the acidic leghemoglobin 'components' IV or V.

Amino Acid Sequence

Circular dichroism studies of myoglobin and leghemoglobin.

The circular dichroism spectra of leghemoglobin a from the root nodules of soybean have been compared with those for sperm whale myoglobin in the fat- and near-ultraviolet and the Soret and visible regions of the spectrum. Circular dichroism spectra in the far-ultraviolet show that the leghemoglobins all have a high alpha-helix content (soybean leghemoglobin a, 55%) regardless of the nature of bound ligands and oxidation or spin state of the heme iron. The known sequence homologies with mammalian hemoglobins may therefore be reflected in conformational homologies as suggested by the x-ray studies of Vainshtein et al. ((1975) Nature (London) 254, 163-164) on lupin leghemoglobin. Removal of the heme moiety decreases helicity by only 9% for leghemoglobins, compared with 23% for myoglobin. This, the much smaller heme contribution to the near-ultraviolet circular dichroism than in myoglobin, and the greater accessibility of the heme moiety to aqueous solvent (Nicola et al. (1974), Proc. Aust. Biochem. Soc. 7, 21) suggest that the association between heme and protein is much weaker in leghemoglobins than in myoglobin. The aromatic Soret and visible circular dichroism spectra for all derivatives of leghemoglobin are opposite in sense to those for myoglobin, showing that the patterns of protein side chain contacts with the heme are different in the two classes of heme proteins. There is strong evidence that one of the two tryptophans whose identity and structural role in myoglobin is known, is present also in plant leghemoglobins, hydrogen-bonded and in a similar nonpolar environment whether heme is present or not. The above findings help to explain the remarkably high oxygen affinity and some other ligand-binding properties of leghemoglobins which differ from those of myoglobin.

Animals

Leghemoglobin. An electron paramagnetic resonance and optical spectral study of the free protein and its complexes with nicotinate and acetate.

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and optical spectra are used as probes of the heme and its ligands in ferric and ferrous leghemoglobin. The proximal ligand to the heme iron atom of ferric soybean leghemoglobin is identified as imidazole by comparison of the EPR of leghemoglobin hydroxide, azide, and cyanide with the corresponding derivatives of human hemoglobin. Optical spectra show that ferric soybean leghemoglobin near room temperature is almost entirely in the high spin state. At 77 K the optical spectrum is that of a low spin compound, while at 1.6 K the EPR is that of a low spin form resembling bis-imidazole heme. Acetate binds to ferric leghemoglobin to form a high spin complex as judged from the optical spectrum. The EPR of this complex is that of high spin ferric heme in a nearly axial environment. The complexes of ferrous leghemoglobin with substituted pyridines exhibit optical absorption maxima near 685 nm, whose absorption maxima and extinctions are strongly dependent on the nature of the substitutents of the pyridine ring; electron withdrawing groups on the pyridine ring shift the absorption maxima to lower energy. A crystal field analysis of the EPR of nicotinate derivatives of ferric leghemoblobin demonstrates that the pyridine nitrogen is also bound to the heme iron in the ferric state. These findings lead us to picture leghemoglobin as a somewhat flexible molecule in which the transition region between the E and F helices may act as a hinge, opening a small amount at higher temperature to a stable configuration in which the protein is high spin and can accommodate exogenous ligand molecules and closing at low temperature to a second stable configuration in which the protein is low spin and in which close approach of the E helix permits the distal histidine to become the principal sixth ligand.

Acetates

Studies on ligand binding of kidney bean leghemoglobin.

Absorption spectra of different ligand derivative;s of kidney bean leghemoglobin alpha have been recorded. The effect of pH on the absorption spectra of kidney bean leghemoglobin alpha has been studied. The pK of the acid-alkaline transition of the heme-linked water molecule is 8.25 and the pK for the acid dissociation of the heme group is 4.03. Affinities of kidney bean leghemoglobin for two different types of ligands have been studied in comparison with soybean leghemoglobins alpha and c and sperm whale myoglobin. All these leghemoglobins have similar affinities for the small anionic ligand fluoride ion, and they are only slightly more accessible to this ligand than is sperm whale myoglobin. Differences in the primary structure or in conformation of these proteins are reflected in the affinity for the bulky ligand imidazole. The accessibility to imidazole increases in the order sperm whale myoglobin less than soybean Lbalpha less than soybean Lbc less than kidney bean Lbalpha, and also low spin Lbalpha less than high spin Lbalpha. The results are discussed with respect to the amino acid sequences of the leghemoglobins.

Binding Sites

Purification and properties of soybean leghemoglobin messenger RNA.

Poly(A)-containing leghemoglobin mRNA from soybean root nodules has been purified 84-fold, as judged by its ability to direct the in vitro synthesis of leghemoglobin in a wheat germ system. It has a poly(A) content of 8.6% and a molecular weight, estimated by formamide gel electrophoresis, of 260 000. mRNA with a molecular weight of around 143 000 would be sufficient to code for leghemoglobin. Thus, with respect to both its poly(A) content and its unexpectedly high molecular weight, leghemoglobin mRNA is similar to mRNAs isolated from animal tissues.

Hemeproteins

Study of the pseudoperoxidatic activity of soybean leghemoglobin and sperm whale myoglobin.

The compound formation between soybean leghemoglobins a and c and H2O2 or ethyl hydroperoxide has been studied and compared with the hydrogen peroxide compound of sperm whale myoglobin. the titration data show that the hydrogen peroxide compounds of leghemoglobins are formed in a 1:1 molar ratio. The kinetics of the formation of the compounds follow first-order kinetics and the compounds are formed considerably faster than the myoglobin peroxide compound. The pseudoperoxidatic activity of leghemoglobins a and c and myoglobin was studied using guaiacol as electron donor. The maximal reaction velocities of leghemoglobins are greater than that of myoglobin. The results indicate that the peroxidatic activity of ferrileghemoglobin may be biologically important for instance in aging root nodules.

Animals

Heme sulfuric anhydrides as soybean leghemoglobin structure probes.

Mesoheme monosulfuric anhydride reacts at three distinct sites in soybean apoleghemoglobin a, at lysine-6, lysine-19 and lysine-57, the last one being the major site of reaction. The heme peptides obtained from thermolytic and pronase hydrolysates of the anhydride-leghemoglobin a were purified and correlated with the known amino acid sequence of the protein. Mesoheme bissulfuric anhydride also reacts with soybean apoleghemoglobin a giving a complex mixture of hemepeptides after hydrolysis with pronase. The visible spectrum of anhydride leghemoglobin is that of low spin heme. This suggests that anhydride leghemoglobin has a conformation with a covalent attachment via propionic acid side chain to lysine-57 and the sixth coordination position of the heme iron occupied by the distal histidine at position 61. Native leghemoglobin is assumed to exist in a similar type of configuration at low temperature, but with the heme propionate side chain being involved in a salt bridge with lysine-57.

Affinity Labels

Effect of nitrite upon leghemoglobin and interaction with nitrogen fixation.

Nitrite (0.4 mM) added to soybean bacteroid preparations strongly inhibited C2H2 reduction. In the presence of leghemoglobin (0.1mM), a 3-fold enhancement of nitrogen fixation occurred but the inhibitory effect of nitrite was delayed. Spectra of leghemoglobin showed a rapid disappearance of the 574 nm and 541 nm peaks of oxyleghemoglobin the presence of nitrite. Concomitant oxidation of this hemoprotein gave ferric leghemoglobin as the single final product. High nitrite levels could depress nitrogen fixation both by inactivation of nitrogenase and by conversion of leghemoglobin into an inactive form. Nitrite present at low concentrations reacts with this hemoprotein and is then no longer able to penetrate into bacteroids.

Hemeproteins

The amino-acid sequence of leghemoglobin component a from Phaseolus vulgaris (kidney bean).

1. Leghemoglobin component a from Phaseolus vulgaris (kidney bean) was digested with trypsin; 15 tryptic peptides and free lysine were purified and the amino acid sequences of the peptides determined. 2. The internal order of the tryptic peptides was determined by the bridge peptides obtained from the thermolytic digest and the dilute acid hydrolyzate of kidney bean leghemoglobin a; 12 thermolytic peptides and two acid hydrolysis peptides were purified and the sequences were partially or completely determined. 3. The complete amino acid sequence of kidney bean leghemoglobin a is compared to that of leghemoglobin a from soybean (Glycine max) and to some animal globins. As regards sequence, the kidney bean globin has 79% identity with the soybean globin and 21% identity with human hemoglobin gamma-chain. Seven of the 14 amino acid residues common to most globins are found in the kidney bean globin. Trp-15 and Tyr-145 are evolutionarily conserved in this globin, which confirms the concept of a common origin of animal and plant globins.

Amino Acid Sequence

Binding of alkylisocyanides with soybean leghemoglobin. Comparisons with sperm whale myoglobin.

The binding of various linear and branched chain alkylisocyanides to soybean leghemoglobin has been studied with respect to association and dissociation kinetics and the results compared with those obtained in parallel on sperm whale and horse heart myoglobins; the linear ligands used (methyl to n-heptyl) cover a greater distribution of chain lengths than hitherto used. The association rate constants are much higher for leghemoglobin than for myoglobin, while the dissociation rates are slower. For a given protein, the dissociation rate constants are not much different when different isocyanides are used (except for methyl), whereas the association rates show complex behavior in relation with the alkyl chain length; singular differences are observed between leghemoglobin and sperm whale myoglobin in this regard. For myoglobin, the binding rate constants decrease from methyl to n-propyl, but remain approximately the same when the ligand carries a still longer alkyl chain. In contrast, for leghemoglobin, although the rate constants decrease from methyl to n-propyl, they show a progressive and important rise with longer alkyl substituents: n-butyl and n-pentyl.

Animals

Circular dichroism of soybean leghemoglobin.

Circular dichroic (CD) spectra of soybean leghemoglobin, and some of its liganded derivatives were measured over the wavelength range of 650 to 200 nm. The heme-related circular dichroic bands in the visible, Soret and ultraviolet wavelength regions exhibit Cotton effects characteristic of each of the compounds examined. The positions of the dichroic bands vary with ligand substitutions and the oxidation state of the iron. All leghemoglobin derivatives, except the apoprotein, exhibit negative circular dichroic bands in the region of Soret absorption. In this region the optical activity of compounds with high-spin moments is greater than that of compounds with low or intermediate spin moments. The ellipticity of the heme band at about 260 nm is also altered by ligand binding and spin state. The dichroic spectra in the far-ultraviolet region indicated a high extent of alpha-helical structure (about 70%) in the native leghemoglobin and its liganded derivatives. The helicality of the apoprotein seems to diminish suggesting a decrease caused by the removal of the heme.

Azides

The effect of ammonium nitrate on the synthesis of nitrogenase and the concentration of leghemoglobin in pea root nodules induced by Rhizobium leguminosarum.

The effects of NH4NO3 on the development of root nodules of Pisum sativum after infection with Rhizobium leguminosarum (strain PRE) and on the nitrogenase activity of the bacteroids in the nodule tissue were studied. The addition of NH4NO3 decreased the nitrogenase activity measured on intact nodules. This reduction of nitrogen fixation did not result from a reduced number of bacteroids or a decreased amount of bacteroid proteins per gram of nodule. The synthesis of nitrogenase, measured as the relative amount of incorporation of [35S]sulfate into the components I and II of nitrogenase was similarly not affected. The addition of NH4NO3 decreased the amount of leghemoglobin in the nodules and there was a quantitative correlation between the leghemoglobin content and the nitrogen-fixing capacity of the nodules. The conclusion is that the decrease of nitrogen-fixing capacity is caused by a decrease of the leghemoglobin content of the root nodules and not by repression of the nitrogenase synthesis.

Enzyme Precursors

Cloning of soybean leghemoglobin structural gene sequences synthesized in vitro.

Double-stranded soybean leghemoglobin DNA was synthesized from leghemoglobin mRNA isolated from soybean nodules. The dsDNA was inserted into the Bam H1 site of plasmid pBR322 using the poly-dAT-joiner method. A cloned DNA fragment of one recombinant plasmid was isolated and characterized by restriction endonuclease digestion. The restriction cleavage map and the DNA sequence of a selected part of the inserted DNA are in complete accordance with the amino-acid sequence of soybean leghemoglobin.

Base Sequence