The purification and properties of formate dehydrogenase and nitrate reductase from Escherichia coli

The membrane-bound formate dehydrogenase of Escherichia coli grown anaerobically in the presence of nitrate was solubilized with deoxycholate and purified to near homogeneity. The purification procedure included ammonium sulfate fractionation and chromatography on Bio-Gel A-1.5m and DEAE Bio-Gel A in the presence of the nonionic detergent, Triton X-100. This detergent caused a significant decrease in the molecular weight of the soluble formate dehydrogenase complex and allowed the enzyme then to be resolved from other membrane components. Anaerobic conditions were required throughout due to the sensitivity of the enzyme to oxygen inactivation. Formate dehydrogenase was judged to be at least 93 to 99% pure by the following procedures: polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis in the presence of Triton X-100 and sodium dodecyl sulfate, gel filtration, and sedimentation velocity studies. The purified enzyme exists as a detergent-protein complex (0.20 +/- 0.03 g of Triton X-100/g of protein) which has an S20,w of 18.1 S and a Stokes radius of 76 A. This corresponds to a molecular weight of 590,000 +/- 59,000. The enzyme had an absorbance spectrum of a b-type cytochrome which could be completely reduced by formate. The heme content corresponds to an equivalent weight of 154,000 which suggests a tetrameric structure for the enzyme. Formate dehydrogenase was found to contain (in relative molar amounts): 1.0 heme, 0.95 molybdenum, 0.96 selenium, 14 non-heme iron, and 13 acid-labile sulfide. Neither FAD nor FMN could be detected. The enzyme contains three polypeptides, designated alpha, beta, and gamma, whose molecular weights were estimated by gel electrophoresis in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate to be 110,000, 32,000, and 20,000, respectively. After separation of the polypeptides by gel filtration in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate alpha, beta, and gamma were found in 1:1.2:0.55 molar ratios. A study of the enzyme obtained from cells grown with [75Se]selenite showed that only the alpha polypeptide contained significant amounts of selenium. The enzyme will catalyze the formate-dependent reduction of phenazine methosulfate, dichlorophenolindophenol, methylene blue, nitroblue tetrazolium, benzyl viologen, methyl viologen, ferricyanide, and coenzyme Q6. Cyanide, azide, p-hydroxymercuribenzoate, iodoacetamide, and oxygen inhibit the enzyme. The procedure which was designed for the purification of formate dehydrogenase also yields a highly purified preparation of nitrate reductase. This nitrate reductase has been shown to contain significant amounts of heme (Enoch, H. G., and Lester, R. L. (1974) Biochem. Biophys. Res Commun. 61,1234-1241). The enzyme contains three polypeptides with molecular weights of 155,000, 63,000, and 19,000. When measured in the presence of Trition X-100 the Stokes radius of nitrate reductase is 75 A and the S20,w is 16 S which corresponds to a molecular weight of 498,000.