Search PubMed⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

R C Prince

Publications and source records attributed to R C Prince.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Electron and proton transport in the ubiquinone cytochrome b-c2 oxidoreductase of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. Patterns of binding and inhibition by antimycin.

The effect of antimycin on the ubiquinone cytochrome b-c2 (Q b-c2) oxidoreductase of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides has been studied under controlled oxidation-reduction potential (Eh) conditions by equilibrium measurements and by rapid kinetic analysis of single turnover flash.induced electron and proton translocations. 1. Antimycin shifts the alpha-band of ferro b50 (lambda max 560 nm) by 1 to 2 nm toward the red but has no apparent effect on the equilibrium oxidation-reduction midpoint potential of the cytochrome. 2. This red shift is proportional to the antimycin added until a "titer" of 0.7 +/- 0.1 antimycin per reaction center (RC) is approached. With a similar titer antimycin essentially abolishes the following millisecond reactions activated by saturating single turnover flashes: reduction of ferri c2, oxidation of ferro b, Phase III of the membrane-potential-indicating band shift of endogenous carotenoid pigments, and the uptake of 1 of the 2 protons taken up per electron transferred. Such titrations indicate that the binding (KD approximately 10(-9) m) and mode of inhibition of antimycin are noncooperative and are independent of the membrane's coupling status and of the pH and Eb over the range in which electron transport is operative. 3. In the presence of excess antimycin a partial recovery of ferri c2 reduction is seen when the intensity of the flash is diminished, but only at Eh values such that Z (a special quinone serving as reductant for ferri c2) is reduced but b50 is oxidized before activation. These results are consistent with the following model. Each Q b-c2 oxidoreductase complex includes one antimycin binding site, one b50, and one Z. These complexes and the c2 . RC complexes, present in an 0.7:1 ratio, are to some degree mobile with respect to each other. Ferri b50 can be reduced either via the quinones of the RC or via Z in a reaction also involving c2. The former route is kinetically dominant in the presence of antimycin, but the latter route is the means for "oxidant-induced reduction" and depends on the collisional interaction of the oxidoreductase and c2 . RC complexes. Antimycin interferes with neither of these two routes but does inhibit the oxidation of ferro b50; all the other inhibitory effects are consequent on this.

Antimycin A↗

Electrogenic events in the ubiquinone-cytochrome b/c2 oxidoreductase of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides.

The reductant of ferricytochrome c2 in Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides is a component, Z, which has an equilibrium oxidation-reduction reaction involving two electrons and two protons with a midpoint potential of 155 mV at pH 7. Under energy coupled conditions, the reduction of ferricytochrome c2 by ZH2 is obligatorily coupled to an apparently electrogenic reaction which is monitored by a red shift of the endogeneous carotenoids. Both ferricytochrome c2 reduction and the associated carotenoid bandshift are similarly affected by the concentrations of ZH2 and ferricytochrome c2, pH, temperature the inhibitors diphenylamine and antimycin, and the presence of ubiquinone. The second-order rate constant for ferricytochrome c2 reduction at pH 7.0 and at 24 degrees C was 2 - 10(9) M-1 - s-1, but this varied with pH, being 5.1 - 10(8) M-1 = s-1 at pH 5.2 and 4.3 - 10(9) M-1 - s-1 at pH 9.3. At pH 7 the reaction had an activation energy of 10.3 kcal/mol.

Bacterial Chromatophores↗

Oxonol dyes as monitors of membrane potential. Their behavior in photosynthetic bacteria.

The reponses of oxonol dyes to single and multiple single turnovers of the photosynthetic apparatus of photosynthetic bacteria have been studied, and compared with the responses of the endogenous carotenoid pigments. The absorbance changes of the oxonols can be conveniently measured at 587 nm, because this is an isosbestic point in the 'light-minus-dark' difference spectrum of the chromatophores. The oxonols appear to respond to the light-induced 'energization' by shifting their absorption maxima. In the presence of K+, valinomycin abolished and nigericin enhanced such shifts, suggesting that the dyes, respond to the light-induced membrane potential. Since the dyes are anions at neutral pH values, they probably distribute across the membrane in accordance with the potential, which is positive inside the chromatophores. The accumulation of dye, which is indicated by a decrease in the carotenoid bandshift, poises the dye-membrane equilibrium in favor of increased dye binding and this might be the cause of the spectral shift. The dye response has an apparent second-order rate constant of approx. 2 . 10(6) M-1 . s-1 and so is always slower than the carotenoid bandshift. Thus the dyes cannot be used to monitor membrane potential on submillisecond timescales. Nevertheless, on a timescale of seconds the logarithm of the absorbance change at 587 nm is linear with respect to the membrane potential calibrated with the carotenoid bandshift. This suggests that under appropriate conditions the dyes can be used with confidence as indicators of membrane potential in energy-transducing membranes that do not possess intrinsic probes of potential.

Antimycin A↗

EPR properties of the reaction center of Rhodopseudomas gelatinosa in situ and in a detergent-solubilized form.

The photochemical reaction centers from a variety of purple photosynthetic bacteria are composed of a trimer of protein subunits. However, the recently isolated reaction center from Rhodopseudomonas gelatinosa appears to have only two subunits. In this paper we examine the EPR characteristics of the primary photochemical reactants in this species, and compare them with those of other species. Despite of the differences in protein composition, no dramatic differences in EPR properties are seen in vivo, although some interesting effects are seen upon solubilization of the reaction center, which may be related to the unusual lability of the isolated preparation. Perhaps the most noteworthy phenomenon seen in Rps. gelatinosa is the apparent ability of electrons on the reduced intermediary electron carrier to tunnel at low temperatures to the oxidized c-type cytochrome, which has not been seen in other species studied to date.

Bacterial Proteins↗

Single and multiple turnover reactions in the ubiquinone-cytochrome b-c2 oxidoreductase of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroids: the physical chemistry of the major electron donor to cytochrome c2, and its coupled reactions.

We have examined the thermodynamic properties of the physiological electron donor to ferricytochrome c2 in chromatophores from the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides. This donor (Z), which is capable of reducing the ferricytochrome with a halftime of 1-2 ms under optimal conditions, has an oxidation-reduction midpoint potential of close to 150 mV at pH 7.0, and apparently requires two electrons and two protons for its equilibrium reduction. The state of reduction of Z, which may be a quinone.protein complex near the inner (cytochrome c2) side of the membrane, appears to govern the rate at which the cyclic photosynthetic electron transport system can operate. If Z is oxidized prior to the flash-oxidation of cytochrome c2, the re-reduction of the cytochrome takes hundreds of milliseconds and no third phase of the carotenoid bandshift occurs. In contrast if Z is reduced before flash activation, the cytochrome is rereduced within milliseconds and the third phase of the carotenoid bandshift occurs. The prior reduction of Z also has a dramatic effect on the uncoupler sensitivity of the rate of electron flow; if it is oxidized prior to activation, uncoupler can stimulate the cytochrome rereduction after several turnovers by less than tenfold, but if it is reduced prior to activation, the stimulation after several turnovers can be as dramatic as a thousandfold. The results suggest that Z plays a central role in controlling electron and proton movements in the ubiquinone cytochrome b-c2 oxido-reductase.

Bacterial Chromatophores↗

The pH dependence of the oxidation-reduction midpoint potential of cytochromes c2 in vivo.

A recent report by Pettigrew et al. [Biochim, Biophys. Acta 430, (1976), 197-208] has examined the pH dependence of the oxidation-reduction midpoint potential of cytochromes c2 in vitro. In media of low ionic strength, these workers identified several pKs on the oxidized forms of the cytochromes, and in some cases there were also pKs on the reduced species. In this work we examine the pH dependence of the midpoint potentials of the cytochromes in situ, attached to the chromatophore membrane. Under these conditions no pK values are detected, and we conclude that in vivo there is no net change in the protonation of cytochrome c2 during oxidation or reduction.

Cytochrome c Group↗

EPR and optical spectroscopic properties of the electron carrier intermediate between the reaction center bacteriochlorophylls and the primary acceptor in Chromatium vinosum.

1. A reaction center-cytochrome c complex has been isolated from Chromatium vinosum which is capable of normal photochemistry and light-activated rapid cytochrome c553 and c555 oxidation, but which has no antenna bacteriochlorophyll. As is found in whole cells, ferrocytochrome c553 is oxidized irreversibly in milliseconds by light at 7 K. 2. Room temperature redox potentiometry in combination with EPR analysis at 7 K, of cytochrome c553 and the reaction center bacteriochlorophyll dimer (BChl)2 absorbing at 883 nm yields identical results to those previously reported using optical analytical techniques at 77 K. It shows directly that two cytochrome c553 hemes are equivalent with respect to the light induced (BChl)2+. At 7 K, only one heme can be rapidly oxidized in the light, commensurate with the electron capacity of the primary acceptor (quinone-iron) being unity. 3. Prior chemical reduction of the quinone-iron followed by illumination at 200K, however, leads to the slow (t1/2 approximately equal to 30 s) oxidation of one cytochrome c553 heme, with what appears to be concommitant reduction of one of the two bacteriophytins (BPh) of the reaction center as shown by bleaching of the 760 nm band, a broad absorbance increase at approx. 650 nm and a bleaching at 543 nm. The 800 nm absorbing bacteriochlorophyll is also involved since there is also bleaching at 595 and 800 nm; at the latter wave-length the remaining unbleached band appears to shift significantly to the blue. No redox changes in the 883 absorbing bacteriochlorophyll dimer are seen during or after illumination under these conditions. The reduced part of the state represents what is considered to be the reduced form of the electron carrier (I) which acts as an intermediate between the bacteriochlorophyll dimer and quinone-iron. The state (oxidized c553/reduced I) relaxes in the dark at 200K in t1/2 approx. 20 min but below 77 K it is trapped on a days time scale. 4. EPR analysis of the state trapped as described above reveals that one heme equivalent of cytochrome becomes oxidized for the generation of the state, a result in agreement with the optical data. Two prominent signals are associated with the trapped state in the g = 2 region, which can be easily resolved with temperature and microwave power saturation: one has a line width of 15 g and is centered at g = 2.003; the other, which is the major signal, is also a radical centered at g = 2.003 but is split by 60 G and behaves as though it were an organic free-radical spin-coupled with another paramagnetic center absorbing at higher magnetic field values; this high field partner could be the iron-quinone of the primary acceptor. The identity of two signals associated with I-. is consistent with the idea that the reduced intermediary carrier is not simply BPh-. but also involves a second radical, perhaps the 800 nm bacteriochlorophylls in the reduced state...

Bacterial Chromatophores↗

Thermodynamic properties of the reaction center of Rhodopseudomonas viridis. In vivo measurement of the reaction center bacteriochlorophyll-primary acceptor intermediary electron carrier.

The thermodynamic properties of redox components associated with the reaction center of Rhodopseudomonas viridis have been characterized with respect to their midpoint potentials and relationship with protons. In particular a midpoint potential for the intermediary electron carrier acting between the reaction center bacteriochlorophyll and the primary acceptor has been determined. The rationale for this measurement was that the light-induced triplet/biradical EPR signal would not be observed if this intermediate was chemically reduced before activation. The midpoint potential of the intermediary at pH 10.8 is about --400 mV (n=1).

Bacteriochlorophylls↗