Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A novel iron centre in the split-Soret cytochrome c from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
JBIC Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The facultative sulfate/nitrate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 harbours a split-Soret cytochrome c. This cytochrome is a homodimeric protein, having two bis-histidinyl c -type haems per monomer. It has an unique architecture at the haem domain: each haem has one of the coordinating histidines provided by the other monomer, and in each monomer the haems are parallel to each other, almost in van der Waals contact. This work reports the cloning and sequencing of the gene encoding for this cytochrome and shows, by transcriptional analysis, that it is more expressed in nitrate-grown cells than in sulfate-grown ones. In addition, the gene-deduced amino acid sequence revealed two new cysteine residues that could be involved in the binding of a non-haem iron centre. Indeed, the presence of a novel type of an iron-sulfur centre (possibly of the [2Fe-2S] type) was demonstrated by EPR spectroscopy, and putative models for its localization and structure in the cytochrome molecule are proposed on the basis of the so-far-known 3D crystallographic structure of the aerobically purified split-Soret cytochrome, which lacks this centre.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2A–C.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5a, b.
Fig. 6a, b.
Fig. 7a, b.
Fig. 8A, B.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Liu MC, Costa C, Coutinho IB, Moura JJ, Moura I, Xavier AV, LeGall J (1988) J Bacteriol 170:5545–5551

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Pereira IAC, Teixeira M, Xavier AV (1998) Struct Bonding 91:65–89

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Coelho AV, Matias P, Sieker LC, Morais J, Carrondo MA, Lampreia J, Costa C, Moura JJ, Moura I, LeGall J (1996) Acta Crystallogr Sect D 52:1202–1208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Coutinho IB, Xavier AV (1994) Methods Enzymol 243:119–140

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Arciero DM, Collins MJ, Haladjian J, Bianco P, Hooper AB (1991) Biochemistry 30:11459–11465

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Pereira MM, Carita JN, Teixeira M (1999) Biochemistry 38:1268–1275

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Matias PM, Morais J, Coelho AV, Meijers R, Gonzalez A, Thompson AW, Sieker L, LeGall J, Carrondo MA (1997) J Biol Inorg Chem 2:507–514

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Devreese B, Costa C, Demol H, Papaefthymiou V, Moura I, Moura JJ, Van Beeumen J (1997) Eur J Biochem 248:445–451

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Ausubel FM, Brent R, Kingston RE, Moore DD, Seidman JG, Smith JA, Struhl K (1995) Current protocols in molecular biology. Greene/Wiley, New York

  10. Stokkermans JP, Pierik AJ, Wolbert RB, Hagen WR, Van Dongen WM, Veeger C (1992) Eur J Biochem 208:435–442

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Liu MC, Peck HD Jr (1981) J Biol Chem 256:13159–13164

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Corpet F (1988) Nucleic Acids Res 16:10881–10890

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Reese MG, Harris NL, Eeckman FH (1996) In: Hunter L, Klein TE (eds) Biocomputing: proceedings of the 1996 Pacific symposium. World Scientific, Singapore, pp 737–738

  14. Thompson JD, Higgins DG, Gibson TJ (1994) Nucleic Acids Res 22:4673–4680

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Klenk HP, Clayton RA, Tomb J-F, White O, Nelson KE, Ketchum KA, Dodson RJ, Gwinn M, Hickey EK, Peterson JD, Richardson DL, Kerlavage AR, Graham DE, Kyrpides NC, Fleischmann RD, Quackenbush J, Lee NH, Sutton GG, Gill S, Kirkness EF, Dougherty BA, McKenney K, Adams MD, Loftus B, Peterson S, Reich CI, McNeil LK, Badger JH, Glodek A, Zhou L, Overbeek R, Gocayne JD, Weidman JF, McDonald L, Utterback T, Cotton MD, Spriggs T, Artiach P, Kaine BP, Sykes SM, Sadow PW, D'Andrea KP, Bowman C, Fujii C, Garland SA, Mason TM, Olsen GJ, Fraser CM, Smith HO, Woese CR, Venter JC (1997) Nature 390: 364–370

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Peitsch MC (1995) Bio/Technology 13:658–660

    Google Scholar 

  17. Peitsch MC (1996) Biochem Soc Trans 24:274–279

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Guex N, Peitsch MC (1997) Electrophoresis 18:2714–2723

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Chothia C, Lesk AM (1986) EMBO J 5:823–826

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Harrison RW, Chatterjee D, Weber IT (1995) Proteins Struct Funct Genet 2:463–471

    Google Scholar 

  21. Bajorath J, Stenkamp R, Aruffo A (1993) Protein Sci 2:1798–1810

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. LeGall J, Liu MY, Gomes CM, Braga V, Pacheco I, Regalla M, Xavier AV, Teixeira M (1998) FEBS Lett 429:295–298

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Berry EA, Trumpower BL (1987) Anal Biochem 161:1–15

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Fischer DS, Price DC (1964) Clin Chem 10:21–25

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Aasa R, Vanngard VT (1975) J Magn Reson 19:308–315

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  26. Brünger AT (1992) X-PLOR, version 3.1: a system for crystallography and NMR. Yale University Press, New Haven

  27. Brünger AT (1992) Nature 355:472–474

    Google Scholar 

  28. Roussel A, Fontecilla-Camps JC, Cambillau C (1990) In: XV IUCR congress abstracts, Bordeaux, France, pp 66–67

  29. Read RJ (1986) Acta Crystallogr Sect A 42:140–149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Berman HM, Westbrook J, Feng Z, Gilliland G, Bhat TN, Weissig H, Shindyalov IN, Bourne PE (2000) Nucleic Acids Res 28:235–242

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Saraiva LM, da Costa PN, Conte C, Xavier AV, LeGall J (2001) Biochim Biophys Acta 1520:63–70

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Laskowski RA, MacArthur MW, Moss DS, Thornton JM (1993) J Appl Crystallogr 26:283–291

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  33. Ramachandran GN, Sasisekharan V (1968) Adv Protein Chem 23: 283–437

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Kraulis PJ (1991) J Appl Crystallogr 24:946–950

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Merritt EA, Murphy MEP (1994) Acta Crystallogr Sect D 50:869–873

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Iverson TM, Arciero DM, Hooper AB, Rees DC (2001) J Biol Inorg Chem 6:390–397

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Collaborative Computational Project Number 4 (1994) Acta Crystallogr Sect D 50:760–763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Esnouf RM (1999) Acta Crystallogr Sect D 55:938–940

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Sanner MF, Spehner J-C, Olson AJ (1996) Biopolymers 38:305–320

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Liang J, Edelsbrunner H, Woodward C (1998) Protein Sci 7:1884–1897

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Eisenhaber F, Lijnzaad P, Argos P, Sander C, Scharf M (1995) J Comput Chem 16:273–284

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  42. Yuvaniyama P, Agar JN, Cash VL, Johnson MK, Dean DR (2000) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:599–604

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Fujita T (1966) J Biochem (Tokyo) 60:204–215

    Google Scholar 

  44. Kajie S-I, Anraku Y (1986) Eur J Biochem 154:457–463

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Pereira IAC, Abreu IA, Xavier AV, LeGall J, Teixeira M (1996) Biochem Biophys Res Commun 224:611–618

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Isabel Pacheco and Célia V. Romão for their help in the purification of the Dd27k split-Soret cytochrome c. This work was supported by Fundação da Ciência e Tecnologia projects POCTI/1999/BME/36558 (to M.T.) and POCTI/1999/BME/35021 (to A.V.X.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Rua da Quinta Grande 6, 2780-156 , Oeiras, Portugal

    Isabel A. Abreu, Alexandra I. Lourenço, António V. Xavier, Jean LeGall, Ana V. Coelho, Pedro M. Matias, David M. Pinto, Maria Arménia Carrondo, Miguel Teixeira & Lígia M. Saraiva

  2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30622, USA

    Jean LeGall

  3. Department of Chemistry, Universidade de Évora, Apartado 94, 7002-554 , Evora, Portugal

    Ana V. Coelho

Authors
  1. Isabel A. Abreu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Alexandra I. Lourenço
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. António V. Xavier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jean LeGall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ana V. Coelho
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Pedro M. Matias
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. David M. Pinto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Maria Arménia Carrondo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Miguel Teixeira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Lígia M. Saraiva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lígia M. Saraiva.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Abreu, I.A., Lourenço, A.I., Xavier, A.V. et al. A novel iron centre in the split-Soret cytochrome c from Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774. J Biol Inorg Chem 8, 360–370 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00775-002-0426-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00775-002-0426-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation