PURIFICATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND METABOLIC FUNCTION OF TUNGSTEN-CONTAINING ALDEHYDE FERREDOXIN OXIDOREDUCTASE FROM THE HYPERTHERMOPHILIC AND PROTEOLYTIC ARCHAEON THERMOCOCCUS STRAIN ES-1

Thermococcus strain ES-1 is a strictly anaerobic, hyperthermophilic archaeon that grows at temperatures up to 91 degrees C by the fermentation of peptides. It is obligately dependent upon elemental sulfur (S-0) for growth, which it reduces to H2S. Cell extracts contain high aldehyde oxidation activity with viologen dyes as electron acceptors. The enzyme responsible, which we term aldehyde ferredoxin oxidoreductase (AOR), has been purified to electrophoretic homogeneity. AOR is a homodimeric protein with a subunit M(r) of approximately 67,000. It contains molybdopterin and one W, four to five Fe, one Mg, and two P atoms per subunit. Electron paramagnetic resonance analyses of the reduced enzyme indicated the presence of a single [4Fe-4S](+) cluster with an S = 3/2 ground state. While AOR oxidized a wide range of aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes, those with the highest apparent k(cat)/K-m values (> 10 mu M(-1) s(-1)) were acetaldehyde, isovalerylaldehyde, and phenylacetaldehyde (K-m values of < 100 mu M). The apparent K-m value for Thermococcus strain ES-1 ferredoxin was 10 mu M (with crotonaldehyde as the substrate). Thermococcus strain ES-1 AOR also catalyzed the reduction of acetate (apparent K-m of 1.8 mM) below pH 6.0 (with reduced methyl viologen as the electron donor) but at much less than 1% of the rate of the oxidative reaction (with benzyl viologen as the electron acceptor at pH 6.0 to 10.0). The properties of Thermococcus strain ES-1 AOR are very similar to those of AOR previously purified from the saccharolytic hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus, in which AOR was proposed to oxidize glyceraldehyde as part of a novel glycolytic pathway (S. Mukund and M. W. W. Adams, J. Biol. Chem. 266:14208-14246, 1991). However, Thermococcus strain ES-1 is not known to metabolize carbohydrates, and glyceraldehyde was a very poor substrate (k(cat)/K-m of < 0.2 mu M(-1) s(-1)) for its AOR. The most efficient substrates for Thermococcus strain ES-1 AOR were the aldehyde derivatives of transaminated amino acids. This suggests that the enzyme functions to oxidize aldehydes generated during amino acid catabolism, although the possibility that AOR generated aldehydes from organic acids produced by fermentation cannot be rules out.