No abstract

1-Chlorohexane halidohydrolase from Arthrobacter sp. strain HA1 was purified to homogeneity by fractional precipitation, ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration, and high-performance liquid chromatography gel filtration. The enzyme was a monomer with a molecular weight of about 37,000; its amino acid composition and N-terminal sequence were determined. The enzyme had a broad optimum around pH 9.5, a temperature optimum near 50 degrees C, an activation energy of 40 kJ/mol, and a molecular activity of 0.9 kat/mol. The substrate range of the enzyme included at least 50 halogenated compounds. 1-Chloroalkanes (C3 to C10), 1-bromoalkanes (C1 to C9), and 1-iodoalkanes (C1 to C7), but no 1-fluoroalkane, were substrates. Subterminally substituted, branched-chain, and nonsaturated haloalkanes were dehalogenated. Some halogenated aromatic substrates, e.g., bromobenzene and benzyl bromide, were hydrolyzed. Several alpha,omega-dihaloalkanes were subject to double dehalogenation. Thus, 1,2-dibromoethane was hydrolyzed first to 2-bromoethanol and then to 1,2-dihydroxyethane. Crude extracts of strain HA1 were found to contain a debrominase that cleaved bromoalkanes with long alkyl chains.

Three low molecular mass polypeptides have been isolated by using the technique of organic solvent extraction of thylakoid membranes or whole cells from Rhodopseudomonas viridis. Their primary structures were determined by long liquid phase sequencer runs, combined with the isolation and sequence analysis of the C-terminal o-iodosobenzoic acid fragment and carboxypeptidase degradation. The polypeptide which consists of 58 amino-acids and is 46% homologous to the antenna polypeptide B880-alpha from Rhodospirillum rubrum was designated as B1015-alpha (1 His residue). The sequence homology between the second polypeptide, named B1015-beta (55 amino acids, 2 His residues) and B880-beta from Rs. rubrum is 52%. For the third polypeptide consisting of 36 amino acids and exhibiting a high hydrophobicity, no equivalent polypeptide has so far been found in other purple bacteria. The molar ratio of these three organic solvent soluble polypeptides from Rp. viridis was estimated to be 1:1:1. Accordingly, the 36 amino-acid polypeptide is likely to be an additional constituent of the light-harvesting complex B1015, consequently termed as B1015-gamma. According to hydrophathy profiles, the transmembrane arrangement of B1015-alpha and B1015-beta within the thylakoid membrane is supposed to be similar. B1015-gamma, however, shows a somewhat different hydropathy profile. A particular feature of this polypeptide is its high amount of aromatic amino acids. It is postulated that B1015-gamma is involved in the formation of regular arrays of light-harvesting complexes.

The α‐ and β‐apoproteins from the B800‐850‐complex of Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides strain 2.4.1 have been sequenced. These results have been compared with those previously obtained with the analogous antenna apoproteins from the carotenoidless mutant R26.1 [9]. The α‐apoproteins differ at position 24, where a valine residue present in the wild‐type sequence is replaced by a phenylalanine residue in the mutant. The α‐apoproteins differ at the N‐terminus. In the wild‐type β‐apoprotein some chains have methionine at the N‐terminus and some have an N‐terminal threonine, while in the mutant the N‐terminus is threonine.

The BChlc polypeptide was isolated from chlorosomes of the green bacterium Chloroflexus aurantiacus on Sephadex LH‐60. The complete amino acid sequence of this 5.6 kDa polypeptide (51 amino acid residues) was determined. Most probably the 5.6 kDa polypeptide forms an α‐helix between Trp 5 and Ile 42 with an asymmetrical (bipolar) distribution of polar amino acid residues along the helix axis: (i) At one side of the α‐helix 5 Gln and 2 Asn residues are the possible binding sites for 7 BChlc molecules, (ii) On the other side Ser, Thr, His residues seem to be polypeptide‐polypeptide interaction sites within the BChlc‐protein complexes. It appears that the BChl‐protein complex (chlorosome subunit, 5.2 × 6 nm) composed of 12 5.6 kDa polypeptides corresponds to the 'globular units' found by electron microscopy within the chlorosomes.