Beef heart cytochrome c oxidase was initially delipidated by incubation of the complex in 5% Triton X-100 followed by separation of the resulting detergent-protein complex from the detergent-lipid mixed micelles by sedimentation through a glycerol gradient containing 1% Triton X-100. After this treatment, the complex contained 2-3 mol of diphosphatidylglycerol (DPG) per heme au3. Further .delipidation could be achieved by a second 5% Triton X-100 incubation and a second glycerol gradient. After the second Triton X-100 treatment, the complex contained only 1-2 mol of DPG per heme a q .

Detergent-solubilized bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase requires 2 mol of tightly bound cardiolipin (CL) per mole of monomeric complex for functional activity. Four lines of evidence support this conclusion: (1) Phospholipid depletion shows that two tightly bound CL's must remain associated with cytochrome c oxidase in order to maintain full electron transport activity. (2) Removal of the two tightly bound CL's correlates with decreased activity that is restored by reassociation of 2 mol of exogenous CL. (3) CL-depleted cytochrome c oxidase has two high-affinity binding sites for 2-[14C]acetylcardiolipin (AcCL), Kd,app less than 0.1 microM, that are not present in enzyme containing endogenous CL. An additional 2-3 lower affinity AcCL binding sites, Kd,app = 4 microM, are present in the CL-depleted complex, but these sites are also present in enzyme containing endogenous CL. (4) CL, monolysocardiolipin (MLCL), and dilysocardiolipin (DLCL) compete for AcCL binding with approximately the same relative affinities as those measured by the restoration of electron transport activity (MLCL competes much better than DLCL). However, MLCL and DLCL are only 60% and 15% as effective as CL in restoring maximum activity when they are bound to the high-affinity sites. The binding specificity of CL, MLCL, DLCL, and some of their acylated derivatives indicates that the apolar tails are most important for binding, not the polar head group. The presence or absence of hydroxyl groups in CL, MLCL, or DLCL also has little effect upon binding affinities. Binding specificity clearly favors CL since phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, and phosphatidylcholine each have very low affinity for the CL binding sites (Kd,app greater than 20 microM). We, therefore, conclude that restoration of activity to CL-depleted cytochrome c oxidase is highly specific and requires the reassociation of CL, or structurally similar compounds, with two high-affinity binding sites.

Purified beef heart cytochrome c oxidase, when solubilized with at least 5 mg of Triton X-100/mg of protein, was found to be a monodisperse complex containing 180 molecules of bound Triton X-100 with a protein molecular weight of 200 000, a Stokes radius of 66-72 A, and an s(0)20,w = 8.70 S. These values were determined by measurement of the protein molecular weight by sedimentation equilibrium in the presence of D2O, evaluation of the sedimentation coefficient, S(0)20,w, by sedimentation velocity with correction for its dependence upon the concentration of protein and detergent, and measurement of the effective radius by calibrated Sephacryl S-300 gel chromatography. The monomeric complex was judged to be homogeneous and monodisperse since the effective mass of the complex was independent of the protein concentration throughout the sedimentation equilibrium cell and a single protein schlieren peak was observed during sedimentation velocity. These results are interpreted in terms of a fully active monomeric complex that exhibits typical biphasic cytochrome c kinetics and contains 2 heme a groups and stoichiometric amounts of the 12 subunits normally associated with cytochrome c oxidase. With lower concentrations of Triton X-100, cytochrome c oxidase dimers and higher aggregates can be present together with the monomeric complex. Monomers and dimers can be separated by sedimentation velocity but cannot be separated by Sephacryl S-300 gel filtration, probably because the size of the Triton X-100 solubilized dimer is not more than 20% larger than the Triton X-100 solubilized monomer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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Detergent-saturated phenyl-Sepharose was used to exchange detergents for one another in the presence of membrane proteins. The alkyl detergents lauryl maltoside, octyl glucoside, and dodecyl sulfate were each successfully exchanged for Triton X-100, Triton N-101, or Nonidet P-40 present in a solution of either cytochrome c oxidase, a mixture of inner mitochondrial membrane proteins, or a mixture of erythrocyte membrane proteins. The method involves (1) saturating a small column of phenyl-Sepharose (1-2 mL) with one of the alkyl detergents at a pH of 8 or 9 and an ionic strength of 0.01, (2) applying a detergent-solubilized membrane protein sample containing as much as 20 mg/mL of Triton X-100, Triton N-101, or Nonidet P-40, and (3) eluting the protein with buffer containing the detergent with which the resin had been saturated. With this approach, 90-99% of the detergent in the initial protein sample was exchanged for the second detergent with an 80-100% recovery of protein. The advantages of this method over previous approaches for exchanging detergents include the rapidity of the technique and the apparent general applicability of the method to a wide variety of detergents and membrane proteins.