The high-yield expression and purification of Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase (ccNiR), and its characterization by a variety of methods, notably Laue crystallography, is reported. A key component of the expression system is an artificial ccNiR gene in which the N-terminal signal peptide from the highly expressed S. oneidensis protein “Small Tetra-heme c” replaces the wild-type signal peptide. This gene, inserted into the plasmid pHSG298 and expressed in S. oneidensis TSP-1 strain, generated ~20 mg crude ccNiR/L culture, compared with 0.5–1 mg/L for untransformed cells. Purified ccNiR has nitrite and hydroxylamine reductase activities comparable to those previously reported for E. coli ccNiR, and is stable for over two weeks in pH 7 solution at 4° C. UV/Vis spectropotentiometric titrations and protein film voltammetry identified 5 independent 1-electron reduction processes. Global analysis of the spectropotentiometric data also allowed determination of the extinction coefficient spectra for the 5 reduced ccNiR species. The characteristics of the individual extinction coefficient spectra suggest that, within each reduced species, the electrons are distributed amongst the various hemes, rather than being localized on specific heme centers. The purified ccNiR yielded good quality crystals, with which the 2.59 Å resolution structure was solved at room temperature using the Laue diffraction method. The structure is similar to that of E. coli ccNiR, except in the region where the enzyme interacts with its physiological electron donor (CymA in the case of S. oneidensis ccNiR, NrfB in the case of the E. coli protein).

Significance Glycyl radical enzymes perform many chemical transformations that form the bedrock of microbial anaerobic metabolism. The structure of benzylsuccinate synthase reveals the architecture of an enzyme capable of removing aromatic hydrocarbons from polluted environments. These structures also illustrate a strategy for controlling the generation and utilization of radicals by glycyl radical enzymes through the use of accessory subunits.

The electrochemical properties of Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase (ccNiR), a homodimer that contains 5 hemes per protomer, were investigated by UV/Visible and EPR spectropotentiometries. Global analysis of the UV/Vis spectropotentiometric results yielded highly reproducible values for the heme midpoint potentials. These midpoint potential values were then assigned to specific hemes in each protomer (as defined in previous X-Ray diffraction studies) by comparing the EPR and UV/Vis spectropotentiometric results, taking advantage of the high sensitivity of EPR spectra to the structural microenvironment of paramagnetic centers. Addition of the strong-field ligand cyanide led to a 70 mV positive shift of the active site’s midpoint potential, as the cyanide bound to the initially 5-coordinate high-spin heme and triggered a high-spin to low-spin transition. With cyanide present three of the remaining hemes gave rise to distinctive and readily assignable EPR spectral changes upon reduction, while a fourth was EPR silent. At high applied potentials interpretation of the EPR spectra in the absence of cyanide was complicated by a magnetic interaction that appears to involve three out of five hemes in each protomer. At lower applied potentials the spectra obtained in the presence and absence of cyanide were similar, which aided global assignment of the signals. The midpoint potential of the EPR-silent heme could be assigned by default, but the assignment was also confirmed from UV/Vis spectropotentiometric analysis of the H268M mutant of ccNiR, in which one of the EPR-silent heme’s histidine axial ligands was replaced with a methionine.

Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase (soNrfA), a dimeric enzyme that houses five c-type hemes per protomer, carries out the six-electron reduction of nitrite and the two-electron reduction of hydroxylamine. Protein film voltammetry (PFV) has been used to study the cytochrome c nitrite reductase from Escherichia coli (ecNrfA) previously, revealing catalytic reduction of both nitrite and hydroxylamine substrates by ecNrfA adsorbed to a graphite electrode that is characterized by ‘boosts’ and attenuations in activity depending on the applied potential. Here, we use PFV to investigate the catalytic properties of soNrfA during both nitrite and hydroxylamine turnover and compare those properties to ecNrfA. Distinct differences in both the electrochemical and kinetic characteristics of soNrfA are observed, e.g., all detected electron transfer steps are one-electron in nature, contrary to what has been observed in ecNrfA (Angove, H. C., Cole, J. A., Richardson, D. J., and Butt, J. N. (2002) Protein film voltammetry reveals distinctive fingerprints of nitrite and hydroxylamine reduction by a cytochrome C nitrite reductase, J Biol Chem 277, 23374-23381). Additionally, we find evidence of substrate inhibition during nitrite turnover and negative cooperativity during hydroxylamine turnover, neither of which have previously been observed in any cytochrome c nitrite reductase. Collectively these data provide evidence that during catalysis, potential pathways of communication exist between the individual soNrfA monomers comprising the native homodimer.

Multielectron multiproton reactions play an important role in both biological systems and chemical reactions involved in energy storage and manipulation. A key strategy employed by nature in achieving such complex chemistry is the use of proton-coupled redox steps. Cytochrome c nitrite reductase (ccNiR) catalyzes the six-electron seven-proton reduction of nitrite to ammonia. While a catalytic mechanism for ccNiR has been proposed on the basis of studies combining computation and crystallography, there have been few studies directly addressing the nature of the proton-coupled events that are predicted to occur along the nitrite reduction pathway. Here we use protein film voltammetry to directly interrogate the proton-coupled steps that occur during nitrite reduction by ccNiR. We find that conversion of nitrite to ammonia by ccNiR adsorbed to graphite electrodes is defined by two distinct phases; one is proton-coupled, and the other is not. Mutation of key active site residues (H257, R103, and Y206) modulates these phases and specifically alters the properties of the detected proton-dependent step but does not inhibit the ability of ccNiR to conduct the full reduction of nitrite to ammonia. We conclude that the active site residues examined are responsible for tuning the protonation steps that occur during catalysis, likely through an extensive hydrogen bonding network, but are not necessarily required for the reaction to proceed. These results provide important insight into how enzymes can specifically tune proton- and electron transfer steps to achieve high turnover numbers in a physiological pH range.