Immunological approach to structural comparisons of assimilatory nitrate reductases

Homogeneous squash cotyledon reduced nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide (NADH):nitrate reductase (NR) was isolated using blue-Sepharose and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Gel slices containing NR were pulverized and injected into a previously unimmunized rabbit. This process was repeated weekly and antiserum to NR was obtained after four weeks. Analysis of the antiserum by Ouchterlony double diffusion using a blue-Sepharose preparation of NR resulted in a single precipitin band while immunoelectrophoresis revealed two minor contaminants. The antiserum was found to inhibit the NR reaction and the partial reactions to different degrees. When the NADH:NR and the reduced methyl viologen:NR activities were inhibited 90% by specifically diluted antiserum, the reduction of cytochrome c was inhibited 50%, and the reduction of ferricyanide was inhibited only 30%. Antiserum was also used to compare the cross reactivities of NR from squash cotyledons, spinach, corn, and soybean leaves, Chlorella vulgaris, and Neurospora crassa. These tests revealed a high degree of similarity between NADH:NR from the squash and spinach, while NADH:NR from corn and soybean and the NAD(P)H:NR from soybean were less closely related to the squash NADH:NR. The green algal (C. vulgaris) NADH:NR and the fungal (N. crassa) NADPH:NR were very low in cross reactivity and are apparently quite different from squash NADH:NR in antigenicity. Antiserum to N. crassa NADPH:NR failed to give a positive Ouchterlony result with higher plant or C. vulgaris NADH:NR, but this antiserum did inhibit the activity of squash NR. Thus, it can be concluded from these immunological comparisons that all seven forms of assimilatory NR studied here have antigenic determinants in common and are probably derived from a common ancestor. Although these assimilatory NR have similar catalytic characteristics, they appear to have diverged to a great degree in their structural features.