Topic
Protoporphyrin IX
About: Protoporphyrin IX is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2250 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65544 citations. The topic is also known as: PpIX.
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TL;DR: The direction of this effect, fluorescence quenching, suggests that these salts promote an increase in aggregation, and the magnitudes of the effect, among different salt species sharing a common anion, at constant ionic strength, imply that the effect is cation-specific.
Abstract: The aggregations of protoporphyrin IX and haematoporphyrin IX in aqueous solutions were studied by fluorimetric techniques. Porphyrin concentrations were limited to 0.001-0.1 microM and 0.01-1 microM for protoporphyrin and haematoporphyrin respectively, where dimerization is the dominant aggregation process. The dimerization equilibrium constants (at 25 degrees C, neutral pH, 50 mM-Tris/HCl buffer) were determined to be 3 X 10(7) M and 4 X 10(5) M for the proto and the haemato derivatives respectively. The fluorescence intensity of a given protoporphyrin solution (within the range indicated above) was markedly decreased by salts in the system, over the salt concentration range 0.1-7 mM at constant ionic strength, in the sequence CaCl2 greater than MgCl2 greater than KCl greater than NaCl. The direction of this effect, fluorescence quenching, suggests that these salts promote an increase in aggregation. The differences in the magnitudes of the effect, among different salt species sharing a common anion, at constant ionic strength, imply that the effect is cation-specific. In contrast, the fluorescence intensity of a given solution of haematoporphyrin (within the range indicated above) was unaffected by these salts, under similar concentrations, nor was it sensitive to the total buffer concentration, or to the type of buffer in the system.
95 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that ATP and Mg2+ are absolute requirements for the formation of this complex, probably as MgATP, and ATP hydrolysis has been identified as an absolute requirement for the chelation step.
Abstract: Insertion of Mg2+ into protoporphyrin IX catalysed by the three-subunit enzyme magnesium-protoporphyrin IX chelatase (Mg chelatase) is thought to be a two-step reaction, consisting of activation followed by Mg2+ chelation. The activation step requires ATP and two of the subunits, ChlI and ChlD (I and D respectively), and it has been speculated that this step results in the formation of an I-D-ATP complex. The subsequent step, in which Mg2+ is inserted into protoporphyrin, also requires ATP and the third subunit, H, in addition to ATP-activated I-D complex. In the present study, we examine the interaction of the I and D subunits of the Mg chelatase from the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803. We demonstrate the purification of an I-D complex, and show that ATP and Mg2+ are absolute requirements for the formation of this complex, probably as MgATP. However, ATP may be replaced by the slowly hydrolysable analogue, adenosine 5'-[gamma-thio]triphosphate, and, to a minor extent, by ADP and the non-hydrolysable ATP analogue, adenosine 5'-[beta,gamma-imido]triphosphate, all of which suggests that ATP hydrolysis is not necessary for the formation of the ChlI-ChlD complex. A sensitive continuous assay was used to detect ATPase activity during Mg2+ chelation, and it was found that the maximum rate of ATP hydrolysis coincided with the maximum rate of Mg2+ insertion. The rate of ATP hydrolysis depended on factors that determined the rate of Mg2+ chelation, such as increasing the concentration of the H subunit and the concentration of protoporphyrin. Thus ATP hydrolysis has been identified as an absolute requirement for the chelation step. The I subunit possessed strong ATPase activity when assayed on its own, whereas the D subunit had no detectable activity, and when the I and D subunits were assayed in combination, the ATPase activity of the I subunit was repressed.
95 citations
TL;DR: It is found that homozygous drc(m248) mutant embryos have a G-->T transversion at a splice donor site in the ferrochelatase gene, creating a premature stop codon, suggesting a deficiency in the activity of ferroChelatase, the terminal enzyme in the pathway for heme biosynthesis.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this report, an in vitro assay for Mg-chelatase is described and it is suggested that the cucumber pellet was the component that lost activity during lysis, and broken and reconstituted cucumber chloroplasts were unable to maintain M g-Chelatase activity.
Abstract: The first committed step in chlorophyll synthesis is the Mg-chelatase-catalyzed insertion of magnesium into protoporphyrin IX. Since iron insertion into protoporphyrin leads to heme formation, Mg-chelastase lies at the branch point of heme and chlorophyll synthesis in chloroplasts. Little is known about the enzymology or regulation of Mg-chelatase, as it has been assayed only in intact cucumber chloroplasts. In this report we describe an in vitro assay for Mg-chelatase. Mg-chelatase activity in intact pea chloroplasts was 3- to 4-fold higher than in cucumber chloroplasts. This activity survived chloroplast lysis and could be fractionated by centrifugation into supernatant and pellet components. Both of these fractions were required to reconstitute Mg-chelatase activity, and both were inactivated by boiling indicating that the enzyme is composed of soluble and membrane-bound protein(s). The product of the reaction was confirmed fluorometrically as the magnesium chelate of the porphyrin substrate. The specific activity of the reconstituted system was typically 1 nmol of Mg-deuteroporphyrin per h per mg of protein, and activity was linear for at least 60 min under our assay conditions. ATP and magnesium were required for Mg-chelatase activity and the enzyme was sensitive to the sulfhydryl reagent N-ethylmaleimide (I50, 20 microM). Broken and reconstituted cucumber chloroplasts were unable to maintain Mg-chelatase activity. However, the cucumber supernatant fraction was active when combined with the pellet fraction of peas; the converse was not true, which suggested that the cucumber pellet was the component that lost activity during lysis.
94 citations
TL;DR: The X-ray structure of the anaerobic cobalt chelatase from Salmonella typhimurium, CbiK, has been solved to 2.4 A resolution and the protein structure is homologous to that of Bacillus subtilis PPIX ferrochelatase, which has implications for the understanding of the evolution of this branched biosynthetic pathway.
Abstract: Prosthetic groups such as heme, chlorophyll, and cobalamin (vitamin B(12)) are characterized by their branched biosynthetic pathway and unique metal insertion steps. The metal ion chelatases can be broadly classed either as single-subunit ATP-independent enzymes, such as the anaerobic cobalt chelatase and the protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) ferrochelatase, or as heterotrimeric, ATP-dependent enzymes, such as the Mg chelatase involved in chlorophyll biosynthesis. The X-ray structure of the anaerobic cobalt chelatase from Salmonella typhimurium, CbiK, has been solved to 2.4 A resolution. Despite a lack of significant amino acid sequence similarity, the protein structure is homologous to that of Bacillus subtilis PPIX ferrochelatase. Both enzymes contain a histidine residue previously identified as the metal ion ligand, but CbiK contains a second histidine in place of the glutamic acid residue identified as a general base in PPIX ferrochelatase. Site-directed mutagenesis has confirmed a role for this histidine and a nearby glutamic acid in cobalt binding, modulating metal ion specificity as well as catalytic efficiency. Contrary to the predicted protoporphyrin binding site in PPIX ferrochelatase, the precorrin-2 binding site in CbiK is clearly defined within a large horizontal cleft between the N- and C-terminal domains. The structural similarity has implications for the understanding of the evolution of this branched biosynthetic pathway.
94 citations