A cysteine cluster critical for flavin binding in flavocytochrome b2 from Baker's yeast

We have recently described the addition of 2-keto-3-butynoic acid to flavin-free flavocytochrome b2, a reaction which leads to the loss of flavin-binding capacity ('inactivation') [D. Pompon and F. Lederer (1982) Eur. J. Biochem. 129, 143-137]. For total inactivation, the extrapolated incorporation value was 0.9 mol reagent/mol subunit. In this work we report the results of sequence studies which elucidate the nature of the modification. The modified protein was cleaved with cyanogen bromide and the peptides separated on Sephadex G-100 and SP-Sephadex C-25. 14C-labeled peptides were digested with trypsin and chymotrypsin and smaller labeled fragments purified by chromatography on Sephadex G-50 and thin-layer fingerprinting. It is shown that three cysteine residues are fractionally labeled with nearly complete mutual exclusion. Furthermore, a fraction of the modified peptides is found under the form of cross-linked fragments, where two cysteines have added to the same ketobutynoate molecule. Only two of the possible cross-links were found. These results show that the three cysteines are close to one another in space in the flavin-free enzyme and hence probably also in the holoenzyme. These results, combined with those obtained in the affinity labeling reaction of holoenzyme with bromopyruvate [Alliel et al. (1982) Eur. J. Biochem. 122, 553-558], show that the three residues are located in or close to the active site. Their possible role is discussed.