title: The inactive MoFe protein (NifB-Kp1) of the nitrogenase from nifB mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Its interaction with FeMo-cofactor and the properties of the active MoFe protein formed.
abstract: The inactive MoFe protein (NifB-Kp1) of nitrogenase from nifB mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae may be activated by addition of the iron-molybdenum cofactor (FeMoco) extracted from active MoFe protein (Kp1). However, when apparently saturated with FeMoco, our preparations of NifB-Kp1 yielded activated protein, Kp1-asm, with a specific activity that was at best only 40% of that expected. This was not due to degradation of Kp1-asm, NifB-Kp1 or FeMoco during the activation reaction. Nor could activation be enhanced by addition of other nif-gene products or other proteins. Whereas fully active Kp1 contains 2 FeMoco/molecule, apparent saturation of our NifB-Kp1 preparations required the binding of only 0.4-0.65 FeMoco/molecule. By using chromatography Kp1-asm could be largely resolved from NifB-Kp1 that had not been activated. However, we were unable to isolate fully active MoFe protein (i.e. Kp1-asm containing 2 FeMoco/molecule) from solutions of NifB-Kp1 activated with FeMoco. The maximum activity/ng-atom of total Mo obtained for our purified Kp1-asm was approximately half the maximum activity for FeMoco. Since all NifB-Kp1 preparations contained some Mo, we suggest that FeMoco activated only those NifB-Kp1 molecules already containing one atom of (non-FeMoco) Mo, thus forming Kp1-asm with 2 Mo but only 1 FeMoco/molecule. Kp1-asm was identical with normal Kp1 in terms of its Mr, stability, e.p.r. signals, pattern of substrate reductions, CO inhibition and ATP/2e ratio. In addition, for preparations of differing specific activity, there was a constant and identical relationship between the e.p.r. signal intensity (from FeMoco) and the activity of both Kp1 and Kp1-asm. Assuming the above hypothesis on the structure of Kp1-asm, these data demonstrate that the two FeMoco sites in wild-type Kp1 operate independently.
mesh_terms: D002848:Chromatography, DEAE-Cellulose; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D005288:Ferredoxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D007711:Klebsiella pneumoniae / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics; D008982:Molybdenum / Q000378:metabolism; D008983:Molybdoferredoxin / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D009154:Mutation; D009591:Nitrogenase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005288:Ferredoxins; D008983:Molybdoferredoxin; D008982:Molybdenum; C020809:tetrathiomolybdate; D009591:Nitrogenase