Purification and characterization of homodimeric methylmalonyl-CoA mutase from Sinorhizobium meliloti

High activity (>60 munit/mg protein) of 5'-deoxyadenosylcobalamin-dependent methylmalonyl-CoA mutase (EC 5.4.99.2) was constantly found during growth of a strain of the root-nodule-forming bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti harboring an extra plasmid-encoded copy of the methylmalonyl-CoA-mutase-encoding bhbA gene. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity and characterized. The purified enzyme was found to be a colorless apo-form. The apparent molecular weight of the enzyme was calculated to be 165,000+/-5,000 by Superdex 200 HR gel filtration. SDS-PAGE of the purified enzyme resolved one protein band with an apparent molecular mass of 80.0+/-2.0 kDa, indicating that the S. meliloti enzyme is composed of two identical subunits. The NH(2)-terminal sequence was identical to that predicted from the bhbA nucleotide sequence. Monovalent cations were required for enzyme activity.