Mechanism of ATP-driven electron transfer catalyzed by the benzene ring-reducing enzyme benzoyl-CoA reductase

Benzoyl-CoA reductase (BCR) from the bacterium Thauera aromatica catalyzes the two-electron reduction of benzoyl-CoA (BCoA) to a nonaromatic cyclic diene. In a process analogous to enzymatic nitrogen reduction, BCR couples the electron transfer to the aromatic ring to a stoichiometric hydrolysis of 2 ATP/2e(-). Reduced but not oxidized BCR hydrolyzes ATP to ADP. In this work, purified BCR was shown to catalyze an isotope exchange from [(14)C]ADP to [(14)C]ATP, which was approximately 15% of the ATPase activity in the presence of equimolar amounts of ADP and ATP. In accordance, BCR (alpha beta gamma delta-composition) autophosphorylated its gamma-subunit when incubated with [gamma-(32)P]ATP. Formation of the enzyme-phosphate was independent of the redox state, whereas only dithionite-reduced BCR catalyzed a dephosphorylation associated with the ATPase activity. This finding suggests that the ATPase- and autophosphatase-partial activities of BCR exhibit identical redox dependencies. BCoA or the nonphysiological electron-accepting substrate hydroxylamine stimulated the redox-dependent effects; the rates of both the overall ATPase and the autophosphatase activities of reduced BCR were increased 6-fold. In contrast, BCoA and hydroxylamine had no effect on oxidized and phosphorylated BCR. The reactivity of the phosphoamino acid fits best with a phosphoamidate or acylphosphate linkage. The results obtained suggest a mechanism of ATP hydrolysis-driven electron transfer, which differs from that of nitrogenase by the transient formation of a phosphorylated enzyme.