title: Characteristics of murine protoporphyrinogen oxidase.
abstract: Protoporphyrinogen oxidase (EC 1.3.3.4) (PPO) is the penultimate enzyme of the heme biosynthetic pathway. Mouse PPO has been purified in low yield and kinetically characterized by this laboratory previously. A new more rapid purification procedure is described herein, and with this protein we detect a noncovalently bound flavin moiety. This flavin is present at approximately stoichiometric amounts in the purified enzyme and has been identified by its fluorescence spectrum and high performance liquid chromatography as flavin mononucleotide (FMN). Fluorescence quenching studies on the flavin yielded a Stern-Volmer quenching constant of 12.08 M-1 for iodide and 1.1 M-1 for acrylamide. Quenching of enzyme tryptophan fluorescence resulted in quenching constants of 6 M-1 and 10 M-1 for iodide and acrylamide, respectively. Plasma scans performed on purified enzyme preparations did not reveal the presence of stoichiometric amounts of protein-bound metal ions, and we were unable to detect any protein-associated pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ). Data from circular dichroism studies predict a secondary structure of the native protein consisting of 30.5% alpha helix, 40.5% beta sheet, 13.7% turn, and 15.3% random coil. Denaturation of PPO with urea resulted in a biphasic curve when ellipticity is plotted against urea concentration, typical of amphipathic proteins.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens 30602.
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Proulx
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Dailey
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D005486:Flavin Mononucleotide / Q000032:analysis; D005420:Flavoproteins; D007700:Kinetics; D051379:Mice; D008930:Mitochondria, Liver / Q000201:enzymology*; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins; D010088:Oxidoreductases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D044925:Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-CH Group Donors; D011487:Protein Conformation; D011489:Protein Denaturation; D050768:Protoporphyrinogen Oxidase; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D014364:Tryptophan / Q000032:analysis; D014508:Urea / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D005420:Flavoproteins; D024101:Mitochondrial Proteins; D005486:Flavin Mononucleotide; D014364:Tryptophan; D014508:Urea; D010088:Oxidoreductases; D044925:Oxidoreductases Acting on CH-CH Group Donors; C493979:Ppox protein, mouse; D050768:Protoporphyrinogen Oxidase