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R Brandsch

Publications and source records attributed to R Brandsch.

52 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

Covalent cofactor binding to flavoenzymes requires specific effectors.

Modification by covalent FAD attachment to a histidine residue via an 8 alpha-(N3-histidyl)-riboflavin linkage occurs in several flavoenzymes. Among them is 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO) of Arthrobacter oxidans and the flavoprotein subunits of the fumarate reductase and succinate dehydrogenase complex of Escherichia coli and other bacterial and eukaryotic cells. We found that 6-HDNO holoenzyme formation from apo-6-HDNO, monitored by [14C]FAD incorporation and increase in enzyme activity, can be mediated not only by phosphoenolpyruvate [Nagursky, H., Bichler, V. and Brandsch, R. (1988) Eur. J. Biochem. 177, 319-325], but also by one of the glycolytic intermediates glyceraldehyde-3-P, glycerate-3-P, or the intermediate in glycerol utilization by bacteria, glycerol-3-P. Apoflavoprotein of fumarate reductase and succinate dehydrogenase was obtained in an E. coli riboflavin-requiring strain (E. coli RR28rf) overexpressing the frdABCD or the sdhCDAB operon from the recombinant plasmids pGS39 and pGS141, respectively. In extracts obtained from these cells, flavoprotein flavinylation, analyzed as covalent [14C]FAD incorporation into the apoflavoprotein polypeptide by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and fluorography, was stimulated severalfold by the citric acid cycle intermediates citrate, isocitrate, succinate and fumarate. Our results suggest that covalent modification and thus activation of these enzymes is dependent on specific metabolic intermediates which may act as allosteric effectors in the reaction.

Citrates↗

Binding of FAD to 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase apoenzyme prevents degradation of the holoenzyme.

Expression of the 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO) gene from Arthrobacter oxidans cloned into Escherichia coli showed a marked temperature-dependence. Transformed E. coli cells grown at 30 degrees C exhibited a several-fold higher 6-HDNO activity than did cells grown at 37 degrees C. This effect did not depend on the promoter used for expression of the cloned gene in E. coli, nor was it an effect of 6-HDNO mRNA instability at 37 degrees C. Studies performed in vivo and in vitro revealed that an increased susceptibility of apo-6-HDNO to proteolytic attack at 37 degrees C was responsible for the observed phenomenon. Extracts from cells grown at 37 degrees C showed on Western blots a decrease in immunologically detectable 6-HDNO polypeptide when compared with extracts from cells grown at 30 degrees C. The 6-HDNO polypeptide is covalently modified by attachment of the cofactor FAD to a histidine residue. It could be shown that covalent flavinylation of the apoenzyme in vitro, i.e. formation of holoenzyme, by incubation of cell extracts with FAD and phosphoenolpyruvate protected the 6-HDNO polypeptide from degradation at 37 degrees C. Of a variety of proteinase inhibitors tested only the cysteine-proteinase inhibitor L-3-trans-carboxyoxiran-2-carbonyl-L-leucylagmatine (E64) prevented degradation, by up to 70%, of the apoenzyme.

Apoenzymes↗

Phosphoenolpyruvate-dependent flavinylation of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase.

The reaction leading to the flavinylation of apo-6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase was investigated in cell-free extracts of Eschericia coli carrying the 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO) gene on the expression plasmid pDB222. It was demonstrated that the reaction required phosphoenolpyruvate (P-pyruvate) in addition to FAD. When [32P]P-pyruvate or [14C]P-pyruvate were used in the reaction with apo-6-HDNO, no phosphorylated or pyruvylated apo-protein could be detected, however. In order to drive the reaction to completion, FAD and P-pyruvate had to be present simultaneously in the reaction mixture. When apo-6-HDNO, highly purified by affinity chromatography, was used in the reaction with P-pyruvate and FAD, no additional protein fraction was required. A possible reaction scheme for the formation of holoenzyme from 6-HDNO is discussed.

Adenosine Diphosphate↗

Covalent flavinylation of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase involves an energy-requiring process.

E. coli cells harbouring the recombinant plasmid pDB222 with the 6-HDNO gene under the control of the tac-promotor were induced with IPTG to synthesize a high amount of 6-HDNO protein. Part of this protein was present as 6-HDNO apoenzyme. The proportion of 6-HDNO apoenzyme formed could be increased when the induction of 6-HDNO synthesis by IPTG was performed in the presence of the inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium. The 6-HDNO apoenzyme thus formed could be transformed into enzymatically active holoenzyme in the presence of FAD by a process requiring an energy-generating system consisting of ATP, phosphoenolpyruvate and pyruvate kinase. This finding suggests that an enzymatic step(s) is (are) involved in the covalent flavinylation of 6-HDNO.

Adenosine Triphosphate↗

6-Hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase of Arthrobacter oxidans. Gene structure of the flavoenzyme and its relationship to 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine oxidase.

The nucleotide sequence of the 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO) gene of Arthrobacter oxidans is presented. This covalently flavinylated enzyme specifically oxidizes 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine to 6-hydroxy-N-methylmyosmine. Coinduced in the presence of nicotine is a 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine-specific enzyme, 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine oxidase (6-HLNO), with FAD noncovalently bound to the apoprotein. A comparison of the nucleotide-derived amino acid sequence of the 6-HDNO with the amino acid sequence data obtained from the purified 6-HLNO polypeptide suggests that the two enantiozymes expressed within the same cell are genetically unrelated. This conclusion is supported by the finding that the FAD-binding sites of the two enzymes are different. 6-HLNO exhibits at the amino-terminus of the polypeptide chain a dinucleotide-binding site characteristic for many other FAD- and NAD(P)-dependent enzymes. No such sequence was found in the nucleotide-derived amino acid sequence of 6-HDNO.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Covalent flavinylation of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase analyzed by partial deletions of the gene.

The expression of the enzymatically active 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO) from Arthrobacter oxidans requires the covalent attachment of FAD to the polypeptide chain. How this modification takes place and at what time during the synthesis of the polypeptide is not known. We investigated the possibility of cotranslational flavinylation by generating various deletions of the 6-HDNO gene carried on appropriate plasmid vectors. The polypeptides expressed from these plasmids were analyzed for their ability to incorporate [14C]FAD covalently in an Escherichia coli-derived coupled transcription/translation system. The data show that removal of approximately 40% from the carboxy-terminal part of the 6-HDNO polypeptide did not inhibit the covalent flavinylation of the truncated protein. A fusion protein, consisting of the truncated 6-HDNO polypeptide and the beta-lactamase of pBR322, was also covalently flavinylated. The amino acid sequence surrounding the histidine residue, assumed to bind FAD, was shown to be situated approximately 70 amino acid residues from the amino-terminal end of the 6-HDNO polypeptide. Removal of the first 30 amino acids did not abolish covalent flavinylation. Flavinylation could no longer be detected, however, if a short amino acid sequence, consisting of seven residues, replaced the amino acid sequence upstream of the histidine. These findings prove, in our opinion, that cotranslational flavinylation takes place in the synthesis of 6-HDNO.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Studies in vitro on the flavinylation of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase.

The gene of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO), a flavoenzyme from Arthrobacter oxidans with covalently bound FAD, was expressed with the aid of an expression vector in a cell-free coupled transcription-translation system derived from Escherichia coli MZ9. Ultraviolet irradiation of the E. coli extract did not affect synthesis of the 6-HDNO polypeptide nor total protein synthesis but enzymatic 6-HDNO activity could not be detected. Addition of FAD to the irradiated cell extract restored the capability of the transcription-translation assays to synthesize enzymatically active 6-HDNO. However, enzymatic activity could not be restored on addition of FAD plus cell-free extract to the ultraviolet-inactivated assays after completion of apo-6-HDNO synthesis (60 min) nor to immunoprecipitates thereof. Under similar conditions, addition of [14C]FAD did not increase the protein-bound radioactivity. These results indicate that under conditions of limited FAD supply in the in vitro system a flavinless apo-6-HDNO-polypeptide was synthesized. It was, however, not possible to bind the cofactor to the completed polypeptide chain. These findings argue for a cotranslational cofactor binding.

Arthrobacter↗

Plasmid pAO1 of Arthrobacter oxidans encodes 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase: cloning and expression of the gene in Escherichia coli.

The 160 kb plasmid pAO1 from Arthrobacter oxidans (Brandsch and Decker 1984) was subcloned in Escherichia coli with the aid of the plasmid vectors pUR222 and pBR322. Screening of the recombinant clones for enzyme activity revealed that the flavoenzyme 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase (6-HDNO), one of the enzymes of the nicotine-degradative pathway in A. oxidans, is encoded on pAO1. Immunoprecipitation of 35S-methionine-labelled E. coli cells with 6-HDNO-specific antiserum and expression of recombinant plasmid DNA in E. coli "maxicells" revealed that 6-HDNO is made as a 52,000 dalton protein, approximately 4,500 daltons larger than 6-HDNO from A. oxidans. The 6-HDNO activity was constitutively expressed in E. coli cells, possibly from an A. oxidans promoter, as shown by subcloning of the 6-HDNO gene in pBR322, using the expression vector pKK223-3 and the promoter probe vector pCB192.

Arthrobacter↗

In vivo and in vitro expression of the 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase gene of Arthrobacter oxidans, cloned into Escherichia coli, as an enzymatically active, covalently flavinylated polypeptide.

The 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase gene of Arthrobacter oxidans was cloned into E.coli with the aid of the expression vector pKK223-3. This enzyme, as well as the E.coli enzymes succinate dehydrogenase and fumarate reductase, bears the cofactor FAD covalently attached to the polypeptide through a His-N3-8 alpha-linkage. The amino acid sequence surrounding the histidine residue involved in FAD binding in 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase and the two E.coli enzymes, however, show no homology. Nevertheless, 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase is expressed in E.coli in vivo and in an E.coli-derived coupled transcription-translation system as a covalently flavinylated, enzymatically active polypeptide.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Localization of the enantiozymes of 6-hydroxy-nicotine oxidase in Arthrobacter oxidans by electron immunochemistry.

During the course of growth of Arthrobacter oxidans, induction of the enantiozymes 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase and 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine oxidase occurred in the presence of DL-nicotine. Cryoultramicrotomed sections obtained from cells grown to stationary phase were gold immunolabeled. The results obtained demonstrate that both enzymes are localized in the cytoplasm.

Arthrobacter↗

Isolation and partial characterization of plasmid DNA from Arthrobacter oxidans.

A method for the extraction of the high molecular weight plasmid AO 1 from the gram-positive soil bacterium Arthrobacter oxidans is presented. Following digestion of this DNA with the restriction endonucleases AccI, Bam HI, Eco RI and Hind III, an average molecular mass of 157.8 kb was estimated. This value is in good agreement with the 160 kb size determined previously by electron microscopy (Brandsch et al. 1982). Using the same method, no plasmid DNA was found in strains of the genus Arthrobacter which do not degrade nicotine, e.g., A. albidus, A. globiformis and A. auricans.

Arthrobacter↗

The effect of gyrase inhibitors and cyclic AMP on induction and glucose repression of the 6-hydroxy-nicotine oxidases in Arthrobacter oxidans.

The induction by D,L-nicotine of the enantiozymes 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine oxidase and 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase in Arthrobacter oxidans was differently affected by the inhibitors of Escherichia coli gyrase, novobiocin and nalidixic acid. These compounds inhibited 6-hydroxy-L-nicotine oxidase induction slightly, but led to an increase in the level of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase activity. Furthermore, the specific repression by glucose of 6-hydroxy-D-nicotine oxidase synthesis was not abolished by the addition of cAMP but by that of novobiocin.

Arthrobacter↗

[Experimental investigations on the effect of etilefrinhydrochloride (Effortil) on heart and circulation of animals with partial ischaemic damage of the myocardium (author's transl)].

The effect of Etilefrin on the blood flow of normal and partial ischaemic myocardium with heat conductance probes as well as on the ventricular dynamics was investigated on 11 dogs under propiomazine-pentobarbital narcosis. Etilefrin was applied in doses of 0.04 mg/kg bw. and 0.2 mg/kg bw. At low doses, the blood flow was only elevated in normal myocardium, likewise the systolic aortic pressure, the diastolic aortic pressure decreased, the heart frequency was elevated, whereas the systolic pressure in the left ventricle was only slightly increased for a short time, the enddiastolic pressure unchanged, dp/dtmax rose significantly, but the heart minute volume only slightly. At higher doses, elevation of blood flow also appeared in partial ischaemic myocardium, the aortic pressure, systolic and diastolic, decreased considerably at first and then 20 min. p.i. rose to above the control value. The heart frequency was more elevated than at lower doses, the pressures in the left ventricle showed no obvious changes, dp/dtmax and heart minute volume were likewise considerably elevated. Radiological measurements of the ejection fraction and the mean circumferential fiber shortening velocity at higher Etilefrin doses showed also a positive inotropic effect. In consideration of this fact, therapy with Etilefrin appears useful in disturbances of cardiac function and at least shows no contraindication by means of myocardial blood flow.

Animals↗

Structure-activity relationships among the O-acyl derivatives of leucomycin. Correlation of minimal inhibitory concentrations with binding to Escherichia coli ribosomes.

The synthesis, antimicrobial activity, and binding to ribosomes of leucomycin and leucomycin derivatives are described. In general, the binding of the leucomycins and the leucomycin derivatives to ribosomes correlated with their antimicrobial activity. Some 2'-O-acyl derivatives apparently underwent gradual hydrolysis during antimicrobial assays, for their binding to ribosomes was poor compared to their relatively good antimicrobial activies. Correlation between antimicrobial activity and binding to ribosomes, their molecular site of action, provides some insight into the nature of the active molecular moieties.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗

Screening for organotin compounds in European landfill leachates.

As industrial chemicals, organotin compounds are predominantly applied as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stabilizers and biocides. They are widely encountered in environmental samples and may be introduced into landfills by disposal of municipal solid waste or sewage sludge. In the present study, leachate samples were obtained from several sanitary landfill sites in Sweden, Italy, and Germany. These samples were analyzed by means of a highly sensitive and species-selective method for methyltin, butyltin, and octyltin species. In total, twelve samples from eight different landfill sites at various ages were investigated. The findings of all target compounds range between less than the limit of detection at 0.1 microg/L and, at maximum, 4 microg/L. Only octyltin compounds can be attributed to PVC products with any certainty, whereas for methyltin and butyltin compounds alternative and less distinct sources exist. Organotin compounds are subject to microbial transformation, such as dealkylation and methylation processes. Consequently, caution should be exercised when attributing findings to potential sources and deriving any predicted environmental concentrations.

Biotransformation↗