Covalent structure of the diheme cytochrome subunit and amino-terminal sequence of the flavoprotein subunit of flavocytochrome c from Chromatium vinosum

Abstract

The complete sequence of the 21-kDa cytochrome subunit of the flavocytochrome c (FC) from the purple phototrophic bacterium Chromatium vinosum has been determined to be as follows: EPTAEMLTNNCAGCHG THGNSVGPASPSIAQMDPMVFVEVMEGFKSGEIAS TIMGRIAKGYSTADFEKMAGYFKQQTYQPAKQSF DTALADTGAKLHDKYCEKCHVEGGKPLADEEDY HILAGQWTPYLQYAMSDFREERRPMEKKMASKL RELLKAEGDAGLDALFAFYASQQ. The sequence is the first example of a diheme cytochrome in a flavocytochrome complex. Although the locations of the heme binding sites and the heme ligands suggest that the cytochrome subunit is the result of gene doubling of a type I cytochrome c, as found with Azotobacter cytochrome c4, the extremely low similarity of only 7% between the two halves of the Chromatium FC heme subunit rather suggests that gene fusion is at the evolutionary origin of this cytochrome. The two halves also require a single residue internal deletion for alignment. The first half of the Chromatium FC heme subunit is 39% similar to the monoheme subunit of the FC from the green phototrophic bacterium Chlorobium thiosulfatophilum, but the second half is only 9% similar to the Chlorobium subunit. The N-terminal sequence of the Chromatium FC flavin subunit was determined up to residue 41 as AGRKVVVVGGGTGGATAAKYIKLADPSIEVTLIEP NTKYYT. It shows more similarity to the Chlorobium FC flavin subunit (60%) than do the two heme subunits. The N terminus of the flavin subunit is homologous to a number of flavoproteins, including succinate dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase, and monamine oxidase. There is no obvious homology to the Pseudomonas putida FC flavin subunit, which suggests that the two types of flavocytochrome c arose by convergent evolution. This is consistent with the dissimilar enzyme activities of FC as sulfide dehydrogenase in the phototrophic bacteria and as p-cresol methylhydroxylase in Pseudomonas. We also present a sequence "fingerprint" pattern for the recognition of FAD-binding proteins which is an extended version of the consensus sequence previously presented (Wierenga, R. K., Terpstra, P., and Hol, W. G. J. (1986) J. Mol. Biol. 187, 101-107) for nucleotide binding sites.