Previous Article | Next Article ![]()
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 1999, p. 315-318, Vol. 65, No. 1
Department of Microbiology and Center for
Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing, The University of Iowa, Iowa City,
Iowa 52242
Received 29 July 1998/Accepted 22 October 1998
The oxygenase component of toluene dioxygenase from
Pseudomonas putida F1 is an iron-sulfur protein
(ISPTOL) consisting of Toluene dioxygenase (TDO; EC
1.14.12) catalyzes the first reaction in the degradation of
toluene by Pseudomonas putida F1 (33). TDO is a
multicomponent enzyme system that oxidizes toluene to
(+)-cis-(1S,2R)-dihydroxy-3-methylcyclohexa-3,5-diene
(cis-toluene dihydrodiol) (10, 18, 33). The
organization of the TDO system is shown in Fig.
1. Electrons are transferred from
NADH through a flavoprotein reductase (ReductaseTOL
[28]) to a Rieske [2Fe-2S] protein
(FerredoxinTOL [29]). The latter reduces
the oxygenase component, an iron-sulfur protein (ISPTOL
[27]) which, in the presence of exogenous ferrous
iron, catalyzes the stereospecific addition of dioxygen to the aromatic
nucleus.
0099-2240/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
The
Subunit of Toluene Dioxygenase from Pseudomonas
putida F1 Can Accept Electrons from Reduced
FerredoxinTOL but Is Catalytically Inactive in the Absence
of the
Subunit

![]()
ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Text
References
(TodC1) and
(TodC2)
subunits. Purified TodC1 gave absorbance and electron paramagnetic
resonance spectra identical to those given by purified
ISPTOL. TodC1 was reduced by NADH and catalytic amounts
of ReductaseTOL and FerredoxinTOL. Reduced
TodC1 did not oxidize toluene, and catalysis was strictly dependent on
the presence of purified TodC2.
![]()
TEXT
Top
Abstract
Text
References

View larger version (12K):
[in a new window]
FIG. 1.
Electron flow in the TDO system.
ISPTOL has an
2
2 subunit
composition, and the
and
subunits are encoded by the
todC1 and todC2 genes, respectively
(36). To fully understand the functions of the
and
subunits of ISPTOL in overall enzyme activity,
including electron transfer, substrate binding, and oxygen activation,
the individual subunits require further study. The purification of the
subunit from a clone expressing the todC2 gene has been
recently reported (15). The
subunit encoded by the
todC1 gene is the focus of this study. We report the
construction of a high-expression clone for todC1, purification and properties of TodC1, electron transfer between FerredoxinTOL and TodC1, and the in vitro reconstitution of
high levels of TDO activity from the purified TodC1 and TodC2 subunits. These studies provide essential preliminary information necessary for
future detailed biophysical studies.
Construction of a todC1 expression clone. In order to construct a todC1 high-expression clone, the todC2BA genes were deleted from pDTG601A (36) by digestion with PstI, followed by religation, to form plasmid pDTG612A. This clone contains the todC1 gene and the first 66 bp of the todC2 gene. To delete the remaining todC2 coding sequence, pDTG612A was digested with DraIII and PstI, treated with S1 nuclease to form blunt ends (25), and religated. The resulting plasmid, pDTG626, expresses high levels of todC1, and strain JM109(pDTG626) was used for the purification of TodC1.
Growth conditions for JM109(pDTG626) were first optimized by varying the temperature, medium, inducer concentration, and cell yield in order to produce maximal amounts of soluble TodC1. The best soluble preparation of TodC1 was obtained from cells grown in Luria broth (5) containing ampicillin (100 µg/ml) at 30°C and induced with 200 µM isopropyl-
-D-thiogalactopyranoside
for 2 h when the turbidity at 600 nm reached 0.7. Cells were
harvested by centrifugation and stored at
70°C.
Purification of TodC1.
JM109(pDTG626) cell extract was
prepared from frozen cells (51 g [wet weight]) as described
previously (15), except that the frozen cells were suspended
in buffer A (50 mM bis-Tris buffer, pH 6.8, containing 1 mM
dithiothreitol and 5% glycerol). The cell extract (2.89 g of protein)
was applied to a Q-Sepharose column (5 by 16 cm) (Pharmacia Biotech,
Piscataway, N.J.) which had been previously equilibrated with buffer A
at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. Unbound proteins were washed from the
column with the same buffer at a flow rate of 4 ml/min. Bound proteins
were eluted with a linear salt gradient of 0 to 600 mM KCl in buffer A
at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. Fractions containing TodC1 were red-brown
in color, and their absorption spectra were monitored from 300 to 700 nm. Fractions containing TodC1 were pooled and concentrated by
ultrafiltration with a 30-kDa cutoff membrane filter (Amicon, Danvers,
Mass.). The concentrated solution was exchanged into 5 mM potassium
phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) by ultrafiltration as described above and
applied to a hydroxyapatite column (1.0 by 15 cm; Bio-Rad Laboratories,
Hercules, Calif.) that had been preequilibrated with 5 mM potassium
phosphate buffer. Bound proteins were eluted with a 5 to 100 mM
phosphate buffer (pH 6.8) gradient at a flow rate of 0.4 ml/min.
Fractions containing TodC1 were concentrated, dialyzed against 50 mM
2-[N-morpholino]ethanesulfonic acid (MES) buffer (pH 6.8),
and stored at
70°C. TodC1 was purified to approximately 95%
homogeneity from the crude cell extract (Fig.
2, lane 3) by the two-step procedure. A
13-fold purification of the enzyme was achieved, with recovery of 56%
of the activity present in the crude cell extract (Table
1). The increase in total activity after
hydroxyapatite chromatography may be due to the removal of competing
NADH oxidase activity. This aspect was not pursued further in the
present study.
|
|
Reconstitution of TDO activity.
When purified TodC1 was
incubated for 30 min at ambient temperature with saturating amounts of
purified TodC2, TodB (FerredoxinTOL), and TodA
(ReductaseTOL), the specific activity was 2.46 U/mg of TodC1 (Table 1). This activity is 66% of that obtained with purified native ISPTOL when specific activity is
calculated per milligram of TodC1 (20) and over five
times that given by TodC1 in crude cell extracts (15). The
turnover number of reconstituted ISPTOL was 2.1 s
1, compared to a turnover number of 3.2 s
1 obtained with native ISPTOL
(20). TDO activity was not observed when either TodC1
or TodC2 was omitted from the reconstitution assay. These results
indicate that purified TodC1 and TodC2 can readily assemble in vitro to
yield active ISPTOL and that both subunits are
essential for TDO activity.
Properties of TodC1.
The properties of purified TodC1 and
ISPTOL are shown in Table
2. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of
TodC1 is identical to that predicted from its nucleotide sequence
(35). The absorption spectrum of purified TodC1 showed a
broad peak at 446 nm, with a shoulder around 558 nm and a peak at 325 nm, and was identical to the spectrum obtained with oxidized
ISPTOL (20). Purified TodC2 shows no
absorption in the 300 to 700-nm range (20).
|
subunit) and ISPTOL (
heterodimer)
each contained approximately 2 atoms each of iron and acid-labile
sulfide (Table 2). TodC2 (
subunit) does not contain detectable
amounts of iron or sulfur (20). These results are consistent
with the presence of one Rieske [2Fe-2S] center in each TodC1 subunit.
The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra of purified TodC1,
native ISPTOL, and reconstituted ISPTOL
were recorded at 77 K in both the oxidized and reduced states.
Reduction was achieved by addition of excess sodium dithionite. The
oxidized forms of TodC1, native ISPTOL, and
reconstituted ISPTOL are EPR silent. The EPR spectrum
of reduced TodC1 gave characteristic Rieske [2Fe-2S] signals at
gx = 1.76, gy = 1.91, and
gz = 2.01 (7). Identical reduced EPR
spectra were given by native ISPTOL and reconstituted
ISPTOL (Table 2).
Reconstituted and native ISPTOL behaved identically on
native polyacrylamide gels (data not shown), indicating that the two preparations had the same subunit structure.
Electron transfer to purified TodC1. The reduction of TodC1 by NADH in the presence of catalytic quantities of TodA and TodB is shown in Fig. 3. When the absorbance at 446 nm was plotted against the amount of NADH added, a linear decrease in absorbance was observed (Fig. 3, inset). An endpoint was reached when 15 nmol of NADH was added to the solution containing 30 nmol of TodC1. These results show that TodC1 can accept electrons from reduced TodB (ferredoxinTOL) in the absence of TodC2 and also indicate that each TodC1 subunit can accept one electron. Upon exposure to air, reduced TodC1 was rapidly reoxidized to give its original oxidized spectrum.
|
Discussion.
It is generally accepted that the
subunits of
aromatic-ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases contain a Rieske [2Fe-2S]
center and mononuclear iron with the latter being located at the active site of the enzyme (3). This generalization is based on
rigorous biophysical studies conducted with phthalate (4,
11) and benzene (9, 21, 26) dioxygenases and the
presence of the conserved motif
C-X-H-X15-17-C-X2-H in the deduced amino acid
sequences of all of the aromatic-ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases that
have been reported to date (3, 23). These results have been
confirmed by the recent report of the structure of the oxygenase component of naphthalene dioxygenase (16). In the current
study, the purified
subunit (TodC1) of TDO, which contains the
conserved Rieske center motif (36), was shown to have
optical and EPR spectra that are characteristic of Rieske [2Fe-2S]
proteins (Table 2). This preparation provided the opportunity to
examine the role of TodC1 in electron transport and catalysis.
subunit (TodC2). However, reduced TodC1, in the
presence of air, was unable to oxidize toluene to
cis-toluene dihydrodiol unless TodC2 was present. In a
recent review, Butler and Mason suggested that the
subunit of the
benzene dioxygenase oxygenase component might be involved in Ferredoxin
docking and electron transfer (3). The results discussed
above show that while the
subunit (TodC2) is essential for
catalysis, it is not required for reduction of the Rieske [2Fe-2S]
center in TodC1.
Active terminal oxygenase components from biphenyl dioxygenase
(14), naphthalene dioxygenase (30), and benzene
dioxygenase (21) have been reconstituted from separately
produced
and
subunits in crude cell extracts with various
degrees of success. Hurtubise et al. purified and characterized
His-tagged
and
subunits of the oxygenase component from
biphenyl dioxygenase (14). However, reconstitution
experiments with purified His-tagged
and
subunits did not
yield significant activity. Thus, the present work represents the first
report of the reconstitution of a highly active form of a terminal
oxygenase component (ISPTOL) from its purified
and
subunits.
The function of the
subunit of ISPTOL remains
unclear. It contains no detectable prosthetic groups and is absolutely
required for activity. A study of the isofunctional ISP
subunit
from the toluate dioxygenase enzyme system suggested that it may play a
role in substrate specificity (12). Work by Furukawa and
coworkers with biphenyl and toluene dioxygenases has suggested that the
subunit may contribute to substrate specificity (8, 13), but accumulating evidence obtained with a variety of dioxygenase systems indicates that the
subunit is the major contributor to
substrate specificity (6, 17, 22, 24, 31). All
subunits
from aromatic ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases contain a conserved
aspartate residue at position 205 (naphthalene dioxygenase numbering
[16]). This amino acid may play a major role in the transfer of electrons from a Rieske [2Fe-2S] center in one
subunit to mononuclear iron near the active site in an adjacent
subunit. If this is the case, the
subunit may function mainly in a
structural capacity to maintain contact between adjacent
subunits.
In conclusion, we report for the first time the purification and
properties of the
subunit of ISPTOL, the detection
of electron transport between purified TodC1 and
FerredoxinTOL, the reconstitution of ISPTOL
activity from the purified TodC1 and TodC2 subunits, and the absolute
requirement of TodC2 for catalysis. These studies are an essential
prerequisite for future investigations of subunit interactions and
their role in substrate specificity, electron transfer, and oxygen activation.
| |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
|---|
This work was supported by U.S. Public Health Service grant GM29909 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
We thank K. Lee for providing purified reductaseTOL, J. D. Haddock for helpful discussions, J. V. Parales for technical help in the N-terminal amino acid sequence determination, and G. Buettner for determining the EPR spectra at the University of Iowa ESR facility.
| |
FOOTNOTES |
|---|
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242-1109. Phone: (319) 335-7980. Fax: (319) 335-9999. E-mail: david-gibson{at}uiowa.edu.
Present address: Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, IN 46285.
| |
REFERENCES |
|---|
|
|
|---|
| 1. | Beinert, H. 1990. Recent developments in the field of iron-sulfur proteins. FASEB J. 4:2483-2491[Abstract]. |
| 2. | Bradford, M. M. 1976. A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle of protein-dye binding. Anal. Biochem. 72:248-254[Medline]. |
| 3. | Butler, C. S., and J. R. Mason. 1997. Structure-function analysis of the bacterial aromatic ring-hydroxylating dioxygenases. Adv. Microb. Physiol. 38:47-84[Medline]. |
| 4. |
Cline, J. F.,
B. M. Hoffman,
W. B. Mims,
E. LaHaie,
D. P. Ballou, and J. A. Fee.
1985.
Evidence for N coordination to Fe in the [2Fe-2S] clusters of Thermus Rieske protein and phthalate dioxygenase from Pseudomonas.
J. Biol. Chem.
260:3251-3254 |
| 5. | Davis, R. W., D. Botstein, and J. R. Roth. 1980. Advanced bacterial genetics. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. |
| 6. |
Erickson, B. D., and F. J. Mondello.
1993.
Enhanced biodegradation of polychlorinated biphenyls after site-directed mutagenesis of a biphenyl dioxygenase gene.
Appl. Environ. Microbiol.
59:3858-3862 |
| 7. |
Fee, J. A.,
K. L. Findling,
T. Yoshida,
R. Hille,
G. E. Tarr,
D. O. Hearshen,
W. R. Dunham,
E. P. Day,
T. A. Kent, and E. Münck.
1984.
Purification and characterization of the Rieske iron-sulfur protein from Thermus thermophilus.
J. Biol. Chem.
259:124-133 |
| 8. | Furukawa, K., N. Kimura, R. Iwakiri, A. Nishi, and A. Suyama. 1996. Construction of hybrid operons conferring expanded capability for degrading aromatic hydrocarbons and chlorinated compounds, p. 81-93. In T. Nakazawa, K. Furukawa, D. Haas, and S. Silver (ed.), Molecular biology of pseudomonads. ASM Press, Washington, D.C. |
| 9. | Geary, P. J., F. Saboowalla, D. Patil, and R. Cammack. 1984. An investigation of the iron-sulphur proteins of benzene dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida by electron-spin-resonance spectroscopy. Biochem. J. 217:667-673[Medline]. |
| 10. | Gibson, D. T., M. Hensley, H. Yoshioka, and T. J. Mabry. 1970. Formation of (+)-cis-2,3-dihydroxy-1-methylcyclohexa-4,6-diene from toluene by Pseudomonas putida. Biochemistry 9:1626-1630[Medline]. |
| 11. | Gurbiel, R. J., C. J. Batie, M. Sivaraja, A. E. True, J. A. Fee, B. M. Hoffman, and D. P. Ballou. 1989. Electron-nuclear double resonance spectroscopy of 15N-enriched phthalate dioxygenase from Pseudomonas cepacia proves that two histidines are coordinated to the [2Fe-2S] Rieske-type clusters. Biochemistry 28:4861-4871[Medline]. |
| 12. | Harayama, S., M. Rekik, and K. N. Timmis. 1986. Genetic analysis of a relaxed substrate specificity aromatic ring dioxygenase, toluate 1,2-dioxygenase, encoded by TOL plasmid pWWO of Pseudomonas putida. Mol. Gen. Genet. 202:226-234[Medline]. |
| 13. | Hirose, J., A. Suyama, S. Hayashida, and K. Furukawa. 1994. Construction of hybrid biphenyl (bph) and toluene (tod) genes for functional analysis of aromatic ring dioxygenases. Gene 138:27-33[Medline]. |
| 14. |
Hurtubise, Y.,
D. Barriault, and M. Sylvestre.
1996.
Characterization of active recombinant His-tagged oxygenase component of Comamonas testosteroni B-356 biphenyl dioxygenase.
J. Biol. Chem.
271:8152-8156 |
| 15. |
Jiang, H.,
R. E. Parales,
N. A. Lynch, and D. T. Gibson.
1996.
Site-directed mutagenesis of conserved amino acids in the alpha subunit of toluene dioxygenase: potential mononuclear non-heme iron coordination sites.
J. Bacteriol.
178:3133-3139 |
| 16. |
Kauppi, B.,
K. Lee,
E. Carredano,
R. E. Parales,
D. T. Gibson,
H. Eklund, and S. Ramaswamy.
1998.
Structure of an aromatic-ring-hydroxylating dioxygenase naphthalene 1,2-dioxygenase.
Structure
6:571-586[Medline].
|
| 17. |
Kimura, N.,
A. Nishi,
M. Goto, and K. Furukawa.
1997.
Functional analyses of a variety of chimeric dioxygenases constructed from two biphenyl dioxygenases that are similar structurally but different functionally.
J. Bacteriol.
179:3936-3943 |
| 18. | Kobal, V. M., D. T. Gibson, R. E. Davis, and A. Garza. 1973. X-ray determination of the absolute stereochemistry of the initial oxidation product formed from toluene by Pseudomonas putida 39/D. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 95:4420-4421[Medline]. |
| 19. | Lee, K. 1995. Biochemical studies on toluene and naphthalene dioxygenases. Ph.D. thesis. The University of Iowa, Iowa City. |
| 20. | Lynch, N. A., H. Jiang, and D. T. Gibson. 1996. Rapid purification of the oxygenase component of toluene dioxygenase from a polyol-responsive monoclonal antibody. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62:2133-2137[Abstract]. |
| 21. | Mason, J. R., C. S. Butler, R. Cammack, and J. K. Shergill. 1997. Structural studies on the catalytic components of benzene dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida. Biochem. Soc. Trans. 25:90-95[Medline]. |
| 22. | Mondello, F. J., M. P. Turcich, J. H. Lobos, and B. D. Erickson. 1997. Identification and modification of biphenyl dioxygenase sequences that determine the specificity of polychlorinated biphenyl degradation. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 63:3096-3103[Abstract]. |
| 23. |
Neidle, E. L.,
C. Hartnett,
L. N. Ornston,
A. Bairock,
M. Rekik, and S. Harayama.
1991.
Nucleotide sequences of the Acinetobacter calcoaceticus benABC genes for benzoate 1,2-dioxygenase reveal evolutionary relationships among multicomponent oxygenases.
J. Bacteriol.
173:5385-5395 |
| 24. |
Parales, R. E.,
M. D. Emig,
N. A. Lynch, and D. T. Gibson.
1998.
Substrate specificities of hybrid naphthalene and 2,4-dinitrotoluene dioxygenase enzyme systems.
J. Bacteriol.
180:2337-2344 |
| 25. | Sambrook, J., E. F. Fritsch, and T. Maniatis. 1989. Molecular cloning: a laboratory manual, 2nd ed. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. |
| 26. | Shergill, J. K., C. L. Joannou, J. R. Mason, and R. Cammack. 1995. Coordination of the Rieske-type [2Fe-2S] cluster of the terminal iron-sulfur protein of Pseudomonas putida benzene 1,2-dioxygenase, studied by one- and two-dimensional electron spin-echo envelope modulation spectroscopy. Biochemistry 34:16533-16542[Medline]. |
| 27. | Subramanian, V., T.-N. Liu, W.-K. Yeh, and D. T. Gibson. 1979. Toluene dioxygenase: purification of an iron-sulfur protein by affinity chromatography. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 91:1131-1139[Medline]. |
| 28. |
Subramanian, V.,
T.-N. Liu,
W.-K. Yeh,
M. Narro, and D. T. Gibson.
1981.
Purification and properties of NADH-ferredoxinTOL reductase: a component of toluene dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida.
J. Biol. Chem.
256:2723-2730 |
| 29. |
Subramanian, V.,
T.-N. Liu,
W.-K. Yeh,
C. M. Serdar,
L. P. Wackett, and D. T. Gibson.
1985.
Purification and properties of ferredoxinTOL: a component of toluene dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida F1.
J. Biol. Chem.
260:2355-2363 |
| 30. |
Suen, W.-C., and D. T. Gibson.
1994.
Recombinant Escherichia coli strains synthesize active forms of naphthalene dioxygenase and its individual and subunits.
Gene
143:67-71[Medline].
|
| 31. |
Tan, H.-M., and C.-M. Cheong.
1994.
Substitution of the ISP subunit of biphenyl dioxygenase from Pseudomonas results in a modification of the enzyme activity.
Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun.
204:912-917[Medline].
|
| 32. | Wackett, L. P. 1990. Toluene dioxygenase from Pseudomonas putida F1. Methods Enzymol. 188:39-45[Medline]. |
| 33. | Yeh, W.-K., D. T. Gibson, and T.-N. Liu. 1977. Toluene dioxygenase: a multicomponent enzyme system. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 78:401-410[Medline]. |
| 34. | Zabinski, R., E. Münck, P. M. Champion, and J. M. Wood. 1972. Kinetic and Mössbauer studies on the mechanism of protocatechuic acid 4,5-oxygenase. Biochemistry 11:3212-3219[Medline]. |
| 35. |
Zylstra, G. J., and D. T. Gibson.
1989.
Toluene degradation by Pseudomonas putida F1: nucleotide sequence of the todC1C2BADE genes and their expression in E. coli.
J. Biol. Chem.
264:14940-14946 |
| 36. | Zylstra, G. J., and D. T. Gibson. 1991. Aromatic hydrocarbon degradation: a molecular approach, p. 183-203. In J. K. Setlow (ed.), Genetic engineering: principles and methods. Plenum Press, New York, N.Y. |
This article has been cited by other articles:
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| J. Bacteriol. | Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. | Eukaryot. Cell | All ASM Journals |
|---|