PubMed · 7724676
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F Van Breusegem, R Villarroel, M Van Montagu, D Inzé. 1995. Ascorbate peroxidase cDNA from maize.. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.107.2.649
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Sufficient highly purified native pea cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase was obtained to characterize some of its kinetic and spectral properties. Its rate constant for compound I formation from reaction with H2O2 is 4.O x 10(7) M-1 s-1, somewhat faster than is typical for peroxidases. Compound I has the typical optical spectrum of an iron(IV)-porphyrin-pi-cation radical, despite considerable homology with yeast cytochrome c peroxidase. The rate constant for compound I reduction by ascorbate is extremely fast (8.0 x 10(7) M-1 S-1 at pH 7.8), again in marked contrast to the behavior of the yeast enzyme. The pH-rate profile for compound I formation indicates a pKa value of 5.0 for a group affecting the active site reaction.
In recent years, it has become apparent that salicylic acid (SA) plays an important role in plant defense responses to pathogen attack. Previous studies have suggested that one of SA's mechanisms of action is the inhibition of catalase, resulting in elevated levels of H2O2, which activate defense-related genes. Here we demonstrate that SA also inhibits ascorbate peroxoidase (APX), the other key enzyme for scavenging H2O2. The synthetic inducer of defense responses, 2,6-dichloroisonicotinic acid (INA), was also found to be an effective inhibitor of APX. In the presence of 750 microM ascorbic acid (AsA), substrate-dependent IC50 values of 78 microM and 95 microM were obtained for SA and INA, respectively. Furthermore, the ability of SA analogues to block APX activity correlated with their ability to induce defense-related genes in tobacco and enhance resistance to tobacco mosaic virus. Inhibition of APX by SA appears to be reversible, thus differing from the time-dependent, irreversible inactivation by suicide substrates such as p-aminophenol. In contrast to APX, the guaiacol-utilizing peroxidases, which participate in the synthesis and crosslinking of cell wall components as part of the defense response, are not inhibited by SA or INA. The inhibition of both catalase and APX, but not guaiacol peroxidases, supports the hypothesis that SA-induced defense responses are mediated, in part, through elevated H2O2 levels or coupled perturbations of the cellular redox state.
The crystal structure of recombinant pea cytosolic ascorbate peroxidase has been refined to an R = 0.19 for data between 8.0 and 2.2 A resolution and magnitude of F > or = 2 sigma(magnitude of F). The refined model consists of four ascorbate peroxidase monomers consisting of 249 residues per monomer assembled into two homodimers, with one heme group per monomer. The ascorbate peroxidase model confirms that the pea cytosolic enzyme is a noncovalent homodimer held together by a series of ionic interactions arranged around the 2-fold noncrystallographic dimer axis. As expected from the high level of sequence identity (33%), the overall fold of the ascorbate peroxidase monomer closely resembles that of cytochrome c peroxidase. The average root mean square differences for 137 helical alpha-carbon atoms between the four ascorbate peroxidase monomers and cytochrome c peroxidase and for 249 topologically equivalent alpha-carbon atoms are 0.9 and 1.3 A, respectively. The active site structures are also the same, including the hydrogen-bonding interactions between the proximal His ligand, a buried Asp residue, and a Trp residue, whose indole ring is parallel to and in contact with the proximal His ligand just under the heme ring. This proximal Trp residue is thought to be the site of free radical formation in cytochrome c peroxidase compound I and is also essential for enzyme activity. The corresponding Trp in ascorbate peroxidase, Trp179, occupies exactly the same position. The most interesting, and possibly functionally important, difference between the two peroxidases is the presence of a cation binding site in ascorbate peroxidase located approximately 8 A from the alpha-carbon atom of Trp179.