HYDROGEN-OXIDIZING ELECTRON-TRANSPORT COMPONENTS IN THE HYPERTHERMOPHILIC ARCHAEBACTERIUM PYRODICTIUM-BROCKII

The hyperthermophilic archaebacterium Pyrodictium brockii grows optimally at 105-degrees-C by a form of metabolism known as hydrogen-sulfur autotrophy, which is characterized by the oxidation of H-2 by S0 to produce ATP and H2S. UV-irradiated membranes were not able to carry out the hydrogen-dependent reduction of sulfur. However. the activity could be restored by the addition of ubiquinone Q10 or ubiquinone Q6 to the UV-damaged membranes. A quinone with thin-layer chromatography migration properties similar to those of Q6 was purified by thin-layer chromatography from membranes of P. brockii, but nuclear magnetic resonance analysis failed to confirm its identity as a ubiquinone. P. brockii quinone was capable of restoring hydrogen-dependent sulfur reduction to UV-irradiated membranes. Hydrogen-reduced-minus-air-oxidized absorption difference spectra on membranes revealed absorption peaks characteristic of c-type cytochromes. A c-type cytochrome with alpha, beta, and gamma peaks at 553, 522, and 421 nm, respectively, was solubilized from membranes with 0.5% Triton X-100. Pyridine ferrohemochrome spectra confirmed its identity as a c-type cytochrome, and heme staining of membranes loaded on sodium dodecyl sulfate gels revealed a single heme-containing component of 13 to 14 kDa. Studies with the ubiquinone analog 2-n-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline-N-oxide demonstrated that the P. brockii quinone is located on the substrate side of the electron transport chain with respect to the c-type cytochrome. These first characterizations of the strictly anaerobic, presumably primitive P. brockii electron transport chain suggest that the hydrogenase operates at a relatively high redox potential and that the H-2-oxidizing chain more closely resembles those of aerobic eubacterial H-2-oxidizing bacteria than those of the H-2-metabolizing systems of anaerobes or the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus.