No abstract

Methyl viologen was reduced by EDTA and other organic compounds when aqueous solutions of these compounds were irradiated near 440 nm in the presence of catalytic quantities of proflavin. The photoreduced methyl viologen was readily oxidized in the dark by the enzyme hydrogenase or platinum asbestos. When the entire reaction was run in the light with hydrogenase or platinum, continuous production of hydrogen was observed. The yield of hydrogen was approximately stoichiometric to the EDTA present establishing that methyl viologen and proflavin were acting catalytically. To establish the structural requirements of the electron donor, eighty compounds were tested at seven pH values between 4 and 10. Of these, twenty served as electron donors for the photoproduction of hydrogen. The effective donors contained either a secondary or tertiary nitrogen atom with one or more carboxymethyl or b-hydroxyethyl groups, or a sulfhydryl group. The system could also reduce benzyl viologen but not methylene blue. Riboflavin did not replace proflavin for the photoproduction of hydrogen, This system may have potential for producing hydrogen with solar energy.

No abstract

A mutant strain of Escherichia coli, strain AK23, is devoid of hydrogenase activity when grown anaerobically on glucose and cannot grow on H2 plus fumarate. From E. coli chromosomal DNA library, a plasmid, pAK23, was isolated which restored hydrogenase activity in this strain. Two smaller plasmids, pAK23C and pAK23S, containing different parts of the insert DNA fragment of plasmid pAK23, were isolated. The former plasmid restored activity in strain AK23 while the latter did not. The smallest active DNA fragment in plasmid pAK23C was 0.9 kb. This gene is designated hydE. Plasmids pAK23 and pAK23S restored activity in another hydrogenase-negative strain, SE-3-1 (hydB), while plasmid pAK23C did not, suggesting that plasmid pAK23 contains two genes required for hydrogenase expression. Strain AK23 was also devoid of formate hydrogenlyase and formate dehydrogenase activities and these activities were restored by some of the plasmids. Hydrogenase and formate-related activities in strain AK23 were restored by growth of cells in a high concentration of nickel. Plasmid pAK23C led to synthesis of a polypeptide of subunit molecular mass 36 kDa and plasmid pAK23S led to synthesis of polypeptides of subunit molecular masses 30 and 41 kDa.

The enzyme hydrogenase, from the photosynthetic bacterium Chromatium, was purified to homogeneity after solubilization of the particulate enzyme with deoxycholate. The purification procedure included ammonium sulfate fractionation, treatment with manganous phosphate gel, heating at 63 degrees, DEAE-cellulose chromatography, and isoelectric focusing. The last step gave two active enzyme fractions with isoelectric points of 4.2 and 4.4. It was shown that the two fractions were different forms of the same protein. The enzyme was obtained in 23% yield and was purified 1700-fold. The enzyme had a molecular weight of 98,000, a sedimentation coefficient of 5.16 S and gave a single protein and activity band on disc gel electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis gave a single band of mol wt 50,000, suggesting that the active enzyme was composed of two subunits of the same molecular weight. The pure hydrogenase contained four atoms of iron and four atoms of acid-labile sulfide, and had a visible absorption peak at 410 nm. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy at 10--15 K showed a free-radical signal at g' = 2.003 in the oxidized enzyme and signals at g' = 2.2 and 2.06 in the reduced enzyme. These findings suggest that Chromatium hydrogenase is an iron-sulfur protein. The pure hydrogenase catalyzed the exchange reaction between H2 and HDO or HTO, the reduction of Benzyl Viologen and Methylene Blue, and the evolution of hydrogen from reduced Methyl Viologen. The mechanism of hydrogen activation was shown to be heterolytic cleavage to an enzyme hydride and a proton. Hydrogenase could not catalyze reduction of pyridine nucleotides or ferredoxin with H2. The effect of pH and various inhibitors on the enzymatic activity has been studied.