Long-range oxidative damage to DNA: effects of distance and sequence.
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INTRODUCTION: Oxidative damage to DNA in vivo can lead to mutations and cancer. DNA damage and repair studies have not yet revealed whether permanent oxidative lesions are generated by charges migrating over long distances. Both photoexcited *Rh(III) and ground-state Ru(III) intercalators were previously shown to oxidize guanine bases from a remote site in oligonucleotide duplexes by DNA-mediated electron transfer. Here we examine much longer charge-transport distances and explore the sensitivity of the reaction to intervening sequences. RESULTS: Oxidative damage was examined in a series of DNA duplexes containing a pendant intercalating photooxidant. These studies revealed a shallow dependence on distance and no dependence on the phasing orientation of the oxidant relative to the site of damage, 5'-GG-3'. The intervening DNA sequence has a significant effect on the yield of guanine oxidation, however. Oxidation through multiple 5'-TA-3' steps is substantially diminished compared to through other base steps. We observed intraduplex guanine oxidation by tethered *Rh(III) and Ru(III) over a distance of 200 A. The distribution of oxidized guanine varied as a function of temperature between 5 and 35 degrees C, with an increase in the proportion of long-range damage (> 100 A) occurring at higher temperatures. CONCLUSIONS: Guanines are oxidized as a result of DNA-mediated charge transport over significant distances (e.g. 200 A). Although long-range charge transfer is dependent on distance, it appears to be modulated by intervening sequence and sequence-dependent dynamics. These discoveries hold important implications with respect to DNA damage in vivo. (+info)
Internal electron transfer between hemes and Cu(II) bound at cysteine beta93 promotes methemoglobin reduction by carbon monoxide.
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Previous studies showed that CO/H2O oxidation provides electrons to drive the reduction of oxidized hemoglobin (metHb). We report here that Cu(II) addition accelerates the rate of metHb beta chain reduction by CO by a factor of about 1000. A mechanism whereby electron transfer occurs via an internal pathway coupling CO/H2O oxidation to Fe(III) and Cu(II) reduction is suggested by the observation that the copper-induced rate enhancement is inhibited by blocking Cys-beta93 with N-ethylmaleimide. Furthermore, this internal electron-transfer pathway is more readily established at low Cu(II) concentrations in Hb Deer Lodge (beta2His --> Arg) and other species lacking His-beta2 than in Hb A0. This difference is consistent with preferential binding of Cu(II) in Hb A0 to a high affinity site involving His-beta2, which is ineffective in promoting electron exchange between Cu(II) and the beta heme iron. Effective electron transfer is thus affected by Hb type but is not governed by the R left arrow over right arrow T conformational equilibrium. The beta hemes in Cu(II)-metHb are reduced under CO at rates close to those observed for cytochrome c oxidase, where heme and copper are present together in the oxygen-binding site and where internal electron transfer also occurs. (+info)
Role of a novel photosystem II-associated carbonic anhydrase in photosynthetic carbon assimilation in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.
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Intracellular carbonic anhydrases (CA) in aquatic photosynthetic organisms are involved in the CO2-concentrating mechanism (CCM), which helps to overcome CO2 limitation in the environment. In the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, this CCM is initiated and maintained by the pH gradient created across the chloroplast thylakoid membranes by photosystem (PS) II-mediated electron transport. We show here that photosynthesis is stimulated by a novel, intracellular alpha-CA bound to the chloroplast thylakoids. It is associated with PSII on the lumenal side of the thylakoid membranes. We demonstrate that PSII in association with this lumenal CA operates to provide an ample flux of CO2 for carboxylation. (+info)
Pathways of electron transfer in Escherichia coli DNA photolyase: Trp306 to FADH.
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We describe the results of a series of theoretical calculations of electron transfer pathways between Trp306 and *FADH. in the Escherichia coli DNA photolyase molecule, using the method of interatomic tunneling currents. It is found that there are two conformationally orthogonal tryptophans, Trp359 and Trp382, between donor and acceptor that play a crucial role in the pathways of the electron transfer process. The pathways depend vitally on the aromaticity of tryptophans and the flavin molecule. The results of this calculation suggest that the major pathway of the electron transfer is due to a set of overlapping orthogonal pi-rings, which starts from the donor Trp306, runs through Trp359 and Trp382, and finally reaches the flavin group of the acceptor complex, FADH. (+info)
Nitrate-dependent regulation of acetate biosynthesis and nitrate respiration by Clostridium thermoaceticum.
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Nitrate has been shown to shunt the electron flow in Clostridium thermoaceticum from CO2 to nitrate, but it did not influence the levels of enzymes involved in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway (J. M. Frostl, C. Seifritz, and H. L. Drake, J. Bacteriol. 178:4597-4603, 1996). Here we show that under some growth conditions, nitrate does in fact repress proteins involved in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway. The CO oxidation activity in crude extracts of nitrate (30 mM)-supplemented cultures was fivefold less than that of nitrate-free cultures, while the H2 oxidation activity was six- to sevenfold lower. The decrease in CO oxidation activity paralleled a decrease in CO dehydrogenase (CODH) protein level, as confirmed by Western blot analysis. Protein levels of CODH in nitrate-supplemented cultures were 50% lower than those in nitrate-free cultures. Western blots analyses showed that nitrate also decreased the levels of the corrinoid iron-sulfur protein (60%) and methyltransferase (70%). Surprisingly, the decrease in activity and protein levels upon nitrate supplementation was observed only when cultures were continuously sparged. Northern blot analysis indicates that the regulation of the proteins involved in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway by nitrate is at the transcriptional level. At least a 10-fold decrease in levels of cytochrome b was observed with nitrate supplementation whether the cultures were sparged or stoppered. We also detected nitrate-inducible nitrate reductase activity (2 to 39 nmol min-1 mg-1) in crude extracts of C. thermoaceticum. Our results indicate that nitrate coordinately represses genes encoding enzymes and electron transport proteins in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and activates transcription of nitrate respiratory proteins. CO2 also appears to induce expression of the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway genes and repress nitrate reductase activity. (+info)
Structure of a cytochrome P450-redox partner electron-transfer complex.
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The crystal structure of the complex between the heme- and FMN-binding domains of bacterial cytochrome P450BM-3, a prototype for the complex between eukaryotic microsomal P450s and P450 reductase, has been determined at 2.03 A resolution. The flavodoxin-like flavin domain is positioned at the proximal face of the heme domain with the FMN 4.0 and 18.4 A from the peptide that precedes the heme-binding loop and the heme iron, respectively. The heme-binding peptide represents the most efficient and coupled through-bond electron pathway to the heme iron. Substantial differences between the FMN-binding domains of P450BM-3 and microsomal P450 reductase, observed around the flavin-binding sites, are responsible for different redox properties of the FMN, which, in turn, control electron flow to the P450. (+info)
Multiple pathways for ultrafast transduction of light energy in the photosynthetic reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides.
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A pathway of electron transfer is described that operates in the wild-type reaction center (RC) of the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. The pathway does not involve the excited state of the special pair dimer of bacteriochlorophylls (P*), but instead is driven by the excited state of the monomeric bacteriochlorophyll (BA*) present in the active branch of pigments along which electron transfer occurs. Pump-probe experiments were performed at 77 K on membrane-bound RCs by using different excitation wavelengths, to investigate the formation of the charge separated state P+HA-. In experiments in which P or BA was selectively excited at 880 nm or 796 nm, respectively, the formation of P+HA- was associated with similar time constants of 1.5 ps and 1. 7 ps. However, the spectral changes associated with the two time constants are very different. Global analysis of the transient spectra shows that a mixture of P+BA- and P* is formed in parallel from BA* on a subpicosecond time scale. In contrast, excitation of the inactive branch monomeric bacteriochlorophyll (BB) and the high exciton component of P (P+) resulted in electron transfer only after relaxation to P*. The multiple pathways for primary electron transfer in the bacterial RC are discussed with regard to the mechanism of charge separation in the RC of photosystem II from higher plants. (+info)
Purified fusion enzyme between rat cytochrome P4501A1 and yeast NADPH-cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase.
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A genetically engineered fusion enzyme between rat P4501A1 and yeast P450 reductase in the microsomal fraction of the recombinant yeast AH22/pAFCR1 was purified. The purified enzyme showed a typical CO-difference spectrum of P4501A1 and a single band with an apparent molecular weight of 125,000 on sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This agreed with the molecular weight of 131,202 calculated from the amino acid sequence. The purified enzyme showed both 7-ethoxycoumarin o-deethylase activity and horse heart cytochrome c reductase activity in the presence of NADPH. The 7-ethoxycoumarin o-deethylase activity depended on the species of lipid used for the reconstitution of the purified fusion enzyme although the purified enzyme showed the activity without reconstitution. The purified fusion enzyme had the Km value of 26 microM for 7-ethoxycoumarin and the maximal turnover rate of 29 mol product/min/mol enzyme at 30 degrees C. (+info)