Purification and Characterization of the Nitrate Reductase from the Diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana

THE ASSIMILATORY NITRATE REDUCTASE (NADH: nitrate oxidoreductase, E.C. 1.6.6.2.) from the marine diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, Hasle and Heimdal, has been purified 200-fold and characterized. The regulation of nitrate reductase in response to various conditions of nitrogen nutrition has been investigated.Nitrate reductase activity is repressed by the presence of ammonium in vivo, and its synthesis is derepressed when ammonium is absent. The derepression process is sensitive to cycloheximide and apparently requires protein synthesis. Repression of enzyme activity by ammonium is neither inhibited nor delayed by the presence of cycloheximide. In vitro, ammonium does not inhibit enzyme activity.NADH is the physiological electron donor for the enzyme in a flavin-dependent reaction. Spectral studies have indicated the presence of a b-type cytochrome associated with the enzyme. It is possible to observe enzymatic oxidation-reduction reactions which represent partial functions of the over-all electron transport capacity of this enzyme. Nitrate reductase will accept electrons from artificial electron donors such as reduced methyl viologen in a flavin-independent reaction. Further, dithionitereduced flavin adenine dinucleotide can donate electrons to the enzyme to reduce nitrate to nitrite. Finally, the nitrate reductase will exhibit a diaphorase activity and reduce the artificial electron acceptor mammalian cytochrome c in flavin-adeninedinucleotide-dependent reaction.Inhibition studies with potassium cyanide, sodium azide, and o-phenanthroline have yielded indirect evidence for metal component (s) of the enzyme.The inhibition of the NADH-requiring enzyme activities by p-hydroxymercuribenzoate has shown that an essential sulfhydryl group is involved in the initial portion of the electron transport. Heat treatment exerts an effect similar to the p-hydroxymercuribenzoate inhibition; namely, the NADH-requiring activities are rapidly inactivated, whereas the terminal nitrate-reducing activities are relatively stable to heat.The T. pseudonana nitrate reductase molecule has the hydrodynamic properties of an ellipsoid with a frictional coefficient of 1.69 and a molecular weight of 330,000.