In order to examine the inhibitory activities of quinolones against topoisomerase IV, both subunits of this enzyme, ParC and ParE, were purified from Escherichia coli. The specific activity of topoisomerase IV decatenation was found to be more than five times greater than that of topoisomerase IV relaxation. Thus, the decatenation activity of topoisomerase IV seems the most relevant activity for use in studies of drug inhibition of this enzyme. Although topoisomerase IV was less sensitive to quinolones than DNA gyrase, the 50% inhibitory concentrations for decatenation were significantly lower than those for type I topoisomerases. Moreover, there was a positive correlation between the inhibitory activity against topoisomerase IV decatenation and that for DNA gyrase supercoiling. These results imply that topoisomerase IV could be a target for the quinolones in intact bacteria and that quinolones could inhibit not only supercoiling of DNA gyrase but also decatenation of topoisomerase IV when high concentrations of drug exist in bacterial cells.Four topoisomerases have been isolated from Escherichia coli so far: topoisomerase I (39), topoisomerase II (DNA gyrase) (9), topoisomerase III (34), and topoisomerase IV (16). Among these enzymes, topoisomerases I, II, and IV are implicated in the control of the intracellular supercoiling density of chromosomal or plasmid DNA, affecting the efficacy of DNA replication and transcription (4, 6-8, 20, 24, 29, 36, 37). In addition, some topoisomerases are required for the segregation of daughter chromosomes or plasmid DNA (1,21,35,40). Although all of these topoisomerases are capable of changing the topology of DNA by a cleaving and rejoining step, each enzyme appears to possess a favored reaction in vitro. Type I topoisomerases, topoisomerase I and topoisomerase III, show efficient relaxing and decatenating activity, respectively, in the absence of ATP (2,3,5,11,29,30,34 subunits of DNA gyrase), respectively (16). Similar sequences are located especially around the region of DNA gyrase known as the "quinolone resistance-determining region." The quinolone antibacterial agents, in particular the fluoroquinolones, strongly inhibit DNA gyrase, which results ultimately in bacterial death (32). However, the inhibitory activities of quinolones against type I topoisomerases, topoisomerase I (25) and topoisomerase III (2) in E. coli, are weak. The inhibitory activities of fluoroquinolones against topoisomerase IV have yet to be fully investigated. The similarity in amino acid sequence between DNA gyrase and topoisomerase IV, especially around sites in the GyrA protein of DNA gyrase at positions known to produce quinolone-resistant DNA gyrases (41), implies that quinolones may be capable of inhibiting the activity of topoisomerase IV as well as against DNA gyrase.In this study, in order to define the inhibitory activities of quinolones against topoisomerase IV, both subunits of topoisomerase IV, ParC and ParE, were purified, and optimum conditions for the decatenating activity of topoi...