Lack of UV-induced respiration shutoff in a recF strain of Escherichia coli: temperature conditional suppression at 30 degrees C by the sfrA mutation.

A mutation in the recF gene of Escherichia coli results in a radiation-sensitive strain. The RecF pathway and the RecBC pathway account for nearly all of the conjugative recombination occurring in E. coli. recBC cells are radiation-sensitive and carry only out a small amount of recombination but these deficiencies are suppressed by an sbcB as recombination is shunted to the RecF pathway. A recBC sbcB recF strain is very radiation-sensitive and is devoid of recombination ability. These deficiencies are suppressed by the srfA mutation; srfA is a recA allele. UV-induced respiration shutoff is a recA+, lexA+ and recBC+ dependent. We report in this paper that respiration does not shutoff in a recF strain at 37 and 30 degrees C. an srfA mutation suppresses this lack of respiration shutoff effect in a recF srfA mutant at 30 degrees C but not at 37 degrees C; no suppression by this mutation occurs at either temperature in a recF recBC sbcB strain. An srfA strain also does not shut off its respiration at 37 degrees C and shows a temperature conditional UV-induced respiration shutoff response at 30 degrees C. The srfA mutation is thought to cause an altered RecA protein to be produced and we suggest that at 37 degrees This altered protein is temperature sensitive. We conclude from the results in this paper that the recF gene product is required for UV-induced respiration shutoff and that the RecA protein plays a special role in the induction process.

RecBC enzyme activity is required for far-UV induced respiration shutoff in Escherichia coli K12.

Shutoff of respiration is one of a number of recA+ lexA+ dependent (SOS) responses caused by far ultraviolet (245 nm) radiation (UV) damage of DNA in Escherichia coli cells. Thus far no rec/lex response has been shown to require the recB recC gene product, the RecBC enzyme. We report in this paper that UV-induced respiration shutoff did not occur in either of these radiation-sensitive derivatives of K12 strain AB1157 nor in the recB recC double mutant. The sbcB gene product is exonuclease I and it has been reported that the triple mutant strain recB recC sbcB has near normal recombination efficiency and resistance to UV. The sbcB strain shut off its respiration after UV but the triple mutant did not show UV-induced respiration shutoff; the shutoff and death responses were uncoupled. We concluded that respiration shutoff requires RecBC enzyme activity. The RecBC enzyme has ATP-dependent double-strand exonuclease activity, helicase activity and several other activities. We tested a recBC+ (double dagger) mutant strain (recC 1010) that had normal recombination efficiency and resistance to UV but which possessed no ATP-dependent double-strand exonuclease activity. This strain did not shut off its respiration. The presence or absence of other RecBC enzyme activities in this mutant is not known. These results support the hypothesis that ATP-dependent double-strand exonuclease activity is necessary for UV-induced respiration shutoff.

Respiration shutoff in Escherichia coli K12 strains is induced by far ultraviolet radiations and by mitomycin C.

Ultraviolet radiations (254 nm) (UV) cause respiration to shutoff in Escherichia coli B/r. It has been reported [P.A. Swenson, Photochem. Photobiol., 33 (1981) 855-859 and J. Barbé, A. Vericat and R. Guerrero, Mutation Res., 120 (1983) 1-5] that E. coli K12 strains do not shut off respiration after UV. The latter authors also reported that mitomycin C did not cause this 'SOS' response. In this paper we report that higher UV fluences than were previously used will cause respiration shutoff in K12 strain W3110 and that cyclic AMP increases the sensitivity of respiration shutoff of irradiated cell suspensions. We also report that mitomycin C shuts off respiration in this strain. Neither UV nor mitomycin C causes respiration shutoff in the recA56 derivative of W3110. Thus respiration shutoff is a recA dependent response to UV and mitomycin C in E. coli K12 strains.

Reexamination of the binding site for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate in ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase from Rhodospirillum rubrum.

The high specificity of pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP) for an essential lysyl residue of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase was confirmed, but half-of-sites reactivity was not observed in contrast to an earlier report [Robison, P. D., Whitman, W. B., Waddill, F., Riggs, A. F., & Tabita, F. R. (1980) Biochemistry 19, 4848-4853]. Subsequent to reduction with [3H]borohydride and tryptic digestion of the enzyme inactivated by PLP, the sole labeled peptide was purified by successive chromatography on DEAE-cellulose, SP-Sephadex, and Sephadex G-25. The peptide, recovered in good yield, appeared essentially homogeneous by amino acid analysis, peptide mapping, and sequencing. Automated Edman degradation established the peptide's sequence as Val-Leu-Gly-Arg-Pro-Glu-Val-Asp-Gly-Gly-Leu-Val-Val-Gly-Thr-Ile-Ile-(PLP)Lys -Pro-Lys instead of Ala-Leu-Gly-Arg-Pro-Glu-Val-Asp-(PLP)Lys-Gly-Thr-Leu-Val-Ile-Lys as reported by Robison et al. (1980) [Robison, P. D., Whitman, W. B., Waddill, F., Riggs, A. F., & Tabita, F. R. (1980) Biochemistry 19, 4848-4853]. The sequence -Ile-Lys-Pro-Lys- in the former is identical with that encompassing Lys-175 in the carboxylase/oxygenase from spinach, which reacts preferentially with PLP and two other affinity labels. This finding of homology greatly strengthens the supposition that Lys-175 in the spinach enzyme and the corresponding lysyl residue in the Rhodospirillum rubrum enzyme are active-site residues and furthermore increases the likelihood of their functionality in catalysis.

Isolation, characterization, and crystallization of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase from autotrophically grown Rhodospirillum rubrum.

Serial culture of Rhodospirillum rubrum with 2% CO2 in H2 as the exclusive carbon source resulted in a rather large fraction of the soluble protein (greater than 40%) being comprised of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase (about sixfold higher than the highest value previously reported). Isolation of the enzyme from these cells revealed that it has physical and kinetic properties similar to those previously described for the enzyme derived from cells grown on butyrate. Notably, the small subunit (which is a constituent of the carboxylase from eucaryotes and most procaryotes) was absent in the enzyme from autotrophically grown R. rubrum. Edman degradation of the purified enzyme revealed that the NH2 terminus is free (in contrast to the catalytic subunit of the carboxylase from eucaryotes) and that the NH2-terminal sequence is Met-Asp-Gln-Ser-Ser-Arg-Tyr-Val-Asn-Leu-Ala-Leu-Lys-Glu-Glu-Asp-Leu-Ile-Ala-Gly-Gly-Glx-His-Val-Leu-. Crystals of the enzyme were readily obtained by dialysis against distilled water.

Inactivation of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase by modification of arginyl residues with phenylglyoxal.

Phenylglyoxal rapidly and completely inactivates spinach and Rhodospirillum rubrum ribulosebisphosphate carboxylases. Inactivation exhibits pseudo-first-order kinetics and a reaction order of approximately one for both enzymes, suggesting that modification of a single residue per protomeric unit suffices for inactivation. Loss of enzymic activity is directly proportional to incorporation of [14C]phenylglyoxal until only 30% of the initial activity remains. For both enzymes, extrapolation of incorporation to 100% inactivation yields 4-5 mol of [14C]phenylglyoxal per mol protomer. Amino acid analyses confirm the expected 2:1 stoichiometry between phenylglyoxal incorporation and arginyl modification and suggest that other kinds of amino acid residues are not modified. (Thus, inactivation correlates with modification of 2-3 arginyl residues per protomer). The substrate ribulose bis-phosphate and some competitive inhibitors reduce the rates of inactivation of the carboxylases and prevent modification of about 0.5-1.0 arginyl residue per protomer. Inactivation is therefore a consequence of modification of a small number of residues out of the 35 and 29 total arginyl residues per protomer in spinach and R. rubrum carboxylases, respectively.

Detection of an essential sulfhydryl group in phosphoglycerate mutase with an affinity-labeling reagent.

N-Bromoacetylethanolamine phosphate rapidly and irreversibly inactivates rabbit muscle phosphoglycerate mutase. At high molar ratios of reagent to enzyme, loss of activity (both mutase and phosphatase) approximates pseudo-first order kinetics. A rate-saturation effect is observed with half-maximal rate of inactivation occurring at 0.32 mM reagent, a value close to the Km for 3-phosphoglyceric acid. This datum and the dissociation constant of the 2,3-bisphosphoglycerate-enzyme complex, as determined from inactivation kinetics in the presence of the bisphosphate, suggest that the reagent reacts at the substrate binding site. Inactivation results from the covalent incorporation of about 0.8 mol of reagent/mol of catalytic subunit as determined with 14C-labeled reagent. Incorporation is negligible in the presence of substrate and is reduced 8-fold in the presence of 6 M urea. From amino acid analyses on acid hydrolysates of the inactivated enzyme, we have identified a sulfhydryl group as the site of alkylation. A peptide containing the essential sulfhydryl group has been isolated from a tryptic digest of the enzyme inactivated with labeled reagent; its amino acid composition is Trp1, Lys1,-Cys(Cm)1, Asp1, Ser1, Glu2, Gly1, Ala1, Leu1, Phe2.

Evidence for essential lysyl residues in ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase by use of the affinity label 3-bromo-1,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 1,4-bisphosphate.

A previous study from our laboratory suggested that 3-bromo-1,4-dihydroxy-2-butanone 1,4-bisphosphate is an affinity label for spinach ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase. To identify the essential residues that react with the reagent we have isolated and characterized the labeled peptides that are present in tryptic digests of inactivated enzyme but lacking in digests of the substrate-protected enzyme. Peptides representing two sites of modification have been obtained from the inactivated carboxylase. Both sites of reaction have been identified as lysyl residues based on the conversion of the derivatives to free lysine by oxidation with sodium metaperiodate. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoretic experiments show that both essential lysyl residues are contained within the large subunit of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase. In addition to lysyl residues, sulfhydryl groups of the carboxylase are also modified, but their modification seems to play little role in the inactivation process. The carboxylase modified in the presence of substrate contains sulfhydryl derivatives but is essentially lacking in lysyl derivatives. By comparing the profiles from ion exchange chromatography of labeled peptides in digests of inactivated and substrate-protected enzyme, we conclude that the same sulfhydryl groups are modified in the absence and presence of substrate.

3-bromo-2-butanone 1,4-bisphosphate as an affinity label for ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase.

3-Bromo-2-butanone 1,4-bisphosphate has been synthesized in an attempt to find a reactive analog of ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate for labeling the active site of ribulosebisphosphate carboxylase (EC 4.1.1.39). The reagent irreversibly inactivates the carboxylase from spinach, and several observations suggest that the inactivation results from modification of an active-site residue: (1) Ribulose 1,5-bisphosphate protects against inactivation. (2) The extent of reagent incorporation shows that modification of one residue per catalytic site can account for the inactivation. (3) Comparisons of autoradiograms of peptide maps prepared from carboxylase treated with the (32)P-labeled reagent in the absence and presence of substrate indicate that inactivation results from a fairly selective modification. (4) Although the reagent's greatest inherent reactivity is toward sulfhydryl groups, inactivation of the enzyme is due to alteration of an amino-acid residue other than cysteine.