Cytochrome P450 purified from Fusarium oxysporum (P450nor) is a unique heme enzyme that catalyzes the reduction of nitric oxide to nitrous oxide with electrons directly transferred from NADH (2NO + NADH + H+--> N2O + H2O + NAD+). We studied the reaction of P450nor with NO and NADH using stopped-flow rapid scan and low temperature spectroscopic methods. The NO ligand can bind to the ferric enzyme to form the stable NO bound complex, P450nor(Fe3+NO). Reduction of P450nor(Fe3+NO) with NADH yielded an intermediate, which transiently formed (tau = approximately 100 ms) and spontaneously decomposed to the Fe3+ state. The optical absorption spectrum of the intermediate was different from that of P450nor(Fe2+NO), which was formed by either a one-electron reduction of P450nor(Fe3+NO) with Na2S2O4 or NO binding to P450nor(Fe2+). On the basis of these observations, we suggested that the intermediate is presumably a two-electron reduced product of P450nor(Fe3+NO) by NADH, formally the (Fe3+NO)2-complex. We determined the rate constants of these reactions at 10 degrees C for the NO binding to P450nor(Fe3+) (2.6 x 10(7) M-1 s-1), the NADH reduction of P450nor(Fe3+NO) (0.9 x 10(6) M-1 s-1), and the spontaneous decomposition of the intermediate (0.027 s-1). In these kinetic measurements, it was found that the former two processes are fast enough, while the latter is extremely slow, compared with the fast turnover of the catalytic reaction (1200 s-1 at 10 degrees C), which we measured by monitoring the NADH consumption. Therefore, we suggested that in the catalytic cycle, decomposition of the intermediate is fairly accelerated by free NO, resulting in such a fast turnover. On the basis of several lines of the spectroscopic and the kinetic evidence, we proposed a possible mechanism of the NO reduction by P450nor.

We studied the nitric oxide reductase, cytochrome P450nor, purified from a denitrifying fungus Fusarium oxysporum with electron paramagnetic resonance spectral and redox potential measurements. The EPR spectral features of P450nor in the ferric resting, the ferric cyanide-bound, and the ferrous NO-bound forms were the same as the corresponding ones of other general P450s such as Pseudomonas putida P450cam. In contrast, the metyrapone complex of ferric P450nor gave an EPR spectrum with significantly different g values from that of P450cam. The EPR results were explained in terms of similarity in the immediate configuration of the S(-)-Fe-ligand (H2O, CN-, NO) structure between P450nor and P450cam but a structural difference at the heme distal pocket, especially in the substrate binding domain; P450cam has a camphor binding domain, while P450nor does not. In spite of the same S(-)-Fe-H2O configuration, the redox potential of P450nor in the ferric/ferrous couple was measured to be -307 mV, which is much lower than those of the camphor-bound (-140 mV) and -free (-250 mV) P450cam. The lower redox potential could be attributable to the different electrostatic interaction of the heme with its surroundings; e.g., the heme environment of P450nor is charged either more negatively or less positively than P450cam.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract