Figure 6 Oxygen-sensitive variants of hydrogenase 1 catalyze hydrogen-dependent reduction of nitroblue tetrazolium. The strains MC4100, its His-tagged

HyaA derivative FTH004 and the respective HyaA cysteine exchange strains ML23 (C19G/C120G), ML24 (C120G) and ML25 (C19G) were grown anaerobically in TGYEP, pH 6.5 and 25 μg protein from crude extracts derived from the cells were loaded onto 7.5% (w/v polyacrylamide) non-denaturating-PAGE. Staining of the gels was performed as indicated on the left under a 100% hydrogen atmosphere in the presence of A: either BV and TTC or B: PMS and NBT as described in the Methods section. The migration pattern of the wild type hydrogenase 1 activity (Hyd-1) and the His-tagged form (His-HyaA) are marked on the right hand side. The core catalytic dimer of Hyd-1 reacts with NBT selleck chemical Recent studies have shown that the small subunit of the E. coli hydrogenases must form a complex with the large subunit for electron transfer from hydrogen to BV to occur [20, 41]. Although not yet unequivocally demonstrated, it is conceivable that the artificial electron acceptors BV and NBT receive ATM Kinase Inhibitor electrons directly from one of the [Fe-S]-clusters in the HyaA small subunit of Hyd-1. The HyaA small subunit of the core

catalytic HyaAB dimer of Hyd-1, when correctly assembled in the membrane, conducts electrons through a [Fe-S]-cluster relay between the active site within the large subunit and a proximal b-type heme located within a membrane-integral cytochrome b subunit (HyaC). This is different for Hyd-2, because there is no HyaC equivalent and instead the small subunit HybO interacts with an additional [Fe-S] cluster-containing subunit, HybA, and the HybB integral membrane protein [34, 42]. It is possible, therefore, that NBT receives electrons from the cytochrome b subunit HyaC and not from HyaA. To test this a hexa-histidine affinity tagged variant of Hyd-1 [34] was isolated from the membrane fraction of anaerobically grown FTH004. Since the HyaC subunit is only loosely bound to Hyd-1 in detergent,

this allows the isolation of the active, core heterodimer comprising HyaB and HyaA. The authenticity of the purified His-tagged Hyd-1 Selleck EPZ 6438 enzyme was verified by Western blot detection using anti-Hyd-1 antibodies (Figure 7A and B) and Cobimetinib mouse the quality of the purified enzyme was analysed by Coomassie Brilliant Blue staining (Figure 7C). Native electrophoresis followed by activity staining with hydrogen and NBT revealed that the core heterodimer retained both NBT- (Figure 7D) and BV/TTC-reducing (Figure 7E) activities after native-PAGE. Therefore, it can be concluded that membrane-anchoring subunit HyaC is not required for electron-transfer to NBT. Figure 7 The heterodimeric HyaB-His-HyaA complex of Hydrogenase 1 catalyzes the hydrogen-dependent reduction of NBT. Aliquots of crude extracts (25 μg total protein) derived from strains MC4100 and DHP-F2 (ΔhypF) grown anaerobically in TGYEP, pH 6.