title: Intramolecular electron transfer in a bacterial sulfite dehydrogenase.
abstract: Sulfite dehydrogenase (SDH) from Starkeya novella, a sulfite-oxidizing molybdenum-containing enzyme, has a novel tightly bound alphabeta-heterodimeric structure in which the Mo cofactor and the c-type heme are located on different subunits. Flash photolysis studies of intramolecular electron transfer (IET) in SDH show that the process is first-order, independent of solution viscosity, and not inhibited by sulfate, which strongly indicates that IET in SDH proceeds directly through the protein medium and does not involve substantial movement of the two subunits relative to each other. The IET results for SDH contrast with those for chicken and human sulfite oxidase (SO) in which the molybdenum domain is linked to a b-type heme domain through a flexible loop, and IET shows a remarkable dependence on sulfate concentration and viscosity that has been ascribed to interdomain docking. The results for SDH provide additional support for the interdomain docking hypothesis in animal SO and clearly demonstrate that dependence of IET on viscosity and sulfate is not an inherent property of all sulfite-oxidizing molybdenum enzymes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
authors.forename: Changjian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Kappler
authors.forename: Gordon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tollin
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Enemark
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D002645:Chickens; D003579:Cytochrome Reductases / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D006418:Heme / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D007700:Kinetics; D011487:Protein Conformation; D050902:Sulfite Dehydrogenase; D013855:Thiobacillus / Q000201:enzymology; D014783:Viscosity
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D006418:Heme; D003579:Cytochrome Reductases; D050902:Sulfite Dehydrogenase