Detection, characterization, and quenching of the intrinsic fluorescence of bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase

The intrinsic fluorescence of lauryl maltoside solubilized bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase has been determined to arise from tryptophan residues of the oxidase complex. The magnitude of the fluorescence is approximately 34% of that from n-acetyltryptophanamide (NATA). This level of fluorescence is consistent with an average heme to tryptophan distance of 30 A. The majority of the fluorescent tryptophan residues are in a hydrophobic environment as indicated by the fluorescence emission maximum at 328 nm and the differing effectiveness of the quenching agents: Cs+, I-, and acrylamide. Cesium was ineffective up to a concentration of 0.7 M, whereas quenching by the other surface quenching agent, iodide, was complex. Below 0.2 M, KI was ineffective whereas between 0.2 and 0.7 M 15% of the tryptophan fluorescence was found to be accessible to iodide. This pattern indicates that protein structural changes were induced by iodide and may be related to the chaotropic character of KI. Acrylamide was moderately effective as a quenching agent of the oxidase fluorescence with a Stern-Volmer constant of 2 M-1 compared with acrylamide quenching of NATA and the water-soluble enzyme aldolase having Stern-Volmer constants of 12 M-1 and 0.3 M-1, respectively. There was no effect of cytochrome c on the tryptophan emission intensity from cytochrome c oxidase under conditions where the two proteins form a tight, 1:1 complex, implying that the tryptophan residues near the cytochrome c binding site are already quenched by energy transfer to the homes of the oxidase. The lauryl maltoside concentration used to solubilize the enzyme did not affect the fluorescence of NATA.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Quenching of the intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence of mitochondrial ubiquinol--cytochrome-c reductase by the binding of ubiquinone

1. The quenching by ubiquinone (Q) of the intrinsic fluorescence of tryptophan residues within ubiquinol--cytochrome-c reductase (complex III) has been exploited to provide direct information on the interaction between these two components of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. 2. The fluorescence quenching data have been corrected for inner filter effects and interpreted using the classical Stern-Volmer and modified Stern-Volmer plots. The latter of these plots allows computation of both the dissociation constant (Kd) of complex formation between ubiquinone and complex III, and the percentage of fluorophores accessible to quenching. 3. It is found that different Q homologues bind to complex III with different affinities depending upon the length of the isoprenoid chain: 2,3-dimethoxy-5-methyl-6-decyl-1,4-benzoquinone, an analogue of Q2, exhibits the same Kd as Q2. Furthermore, the accessibility of fluorophores to quenching was lower for Q1 than for the other quinones tested. 4. The binding affinity of Q2 to complex III depends upon the redox state of the enzyme. 5. Addition of the complex III inhibitor, antimycin, has very little effect on the binding affinity or on the accessibility of fluorophores to the quencher. 6. Addition of the inhibitor myxothiazol has a similar effect to reducing complex III with ascorbate. 7. Reconstitution of complex III into asolectin lipid vesicles gives similar qualitative results to the enzyme in solution regarding both the redox state and the addition of inhibitors.     

Spectroscopic studies on the interaction of riboflavin with bovine serum albumin

The mechanism of interaction of riboflavin (RF) with bovine serum albumin (BSA) using fluorometric and circular dichroism (CD) methods has been reported. The association constant (K) for RF-BSA binding shows that the interaction is non-covalent in nature. Stern-Volmer analysis of fluorescence quenching data shows that the fraction of fluorophore (BSA) accessible to the quencher (RF) is close to unity, indicating that both tryptophan residues of BSA are involved in the interaction. The high magnitude of rate constant for quenching kq (10(13) M(-1) s(-1) indicates that RF binding site is in close proximity to tryptophan residue of BSA. Thermodynamic parameters obtained from data at different temperatures showed that the binding of RF to BSA predominantly involves the formation of hydrophobic bonds. Binding studies in the presence of a hydrophobic probe 8-anilino-1-naphthalene sulphonic acid, sodium salt (ANS) showed that RF and ANS do not share common sites in BSA. The small decrease in critical micellar concentration of anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulphate in the presence of RF shows that ionic character of RF also contributes to binding and is not solubilized inside the micelle. Significant decrease in concentration of free RF has been observed in the presence of paracetamol. The CD spectrum shows the binding of RF leads to a change in the alpha helical structure of BSA.     

Accessibility of tryptophan residues in Na,K-ATPase

The accessibility of the tryptophans in dog kidney Na,K-ATPase was studied with the technique of quenching by acrylamide. By use of a modified Stern-Volmer equation, fa, the effective fraction of tryptophans most exposed to quencher, and Ka, the effective quenching constant, were calculated. The direct Stern-Volmer plots are nonlinear under nondenaturing conditions, indicating that the tryptophan residues are unequally accessible to quencher. Modified Stern-Volmer plots revealed marked differences in the exposure of tryptophans in the E1 and E2 states. In the presence of Na or ADP, ligands that stabilize E1, these plots curve downward, indicating that the in addition to buried (unquenched) tryptophans, there is a heterogeneous class of tryptophans. In the presence of K or ouabain, conditions that favor E2, the modified Stern-Volmer plots are linear, consistent with a homogeneous population of tryptophans. Treatment with chymotrypsin to block the E1 to E2 transition results in a new set of quenching parameters which are unchanged with Na or K. Even after detergent denaturation (1% sodium dodecyl sulfate for 30 min), Stern-Volmer plots are nonlinear, and a significant fraction of tryptophan residues remain inaccessible to quencher. Denaturation with urea or guanidine HCl plus dithiothreitol increases the fraction of quenchable fluorescence even more, but still a small fraction, about 7-13%, is buried. The observed changes in exposure of the tryptophan residues would seem to account for the differences in intrinsic fluorescence seen on adding K and Na to Na,K-ATPase. The present results provide new evidence that a significant rearrangement of amino acid residues results from the E1 to E2 transition. Furthermore, a region of the molecule is inaccessible even after denaturation; this may correspond to highly hydrophobic stretches that are normally buried in the membrane.     

Cytochrome c oxidase exhibits a rapid conformational change upon reduction of CuA: a tryptophan fluorescence study

When cytochrome c oxidase is reduced, it undergoes a conformational change that shifts its tryptophan fluorescence maximum from 329 to 345 nm. Studies of ligand-bound, mixed-valence forms of the enzyme show that this conformational change is dependent on the redox state of the low-potential metal centers, cytochrome a and CuA. The intrinsic fluorescence of oxidized cytochrome c oxidase is not effectively quenched by Cs+; however, marked quenching is observed for the reduced enzyme with a Stern-Volmer constant of 0.69. These observations, together with the significant red shift of the emission maximum, suggest that the emitting tryptophan residues are becoming more solvent accessible in the reduced enzyme. Stopped-flow spectra show that this conformational transition occurs rapidly upon reduction of the low-potential sites with a pseudo-first-order rate constant of 4.07 +/- 0.40 s-1. The conformational change monitored by tryptophan fluorescence is suggested to be related to the previously proposed "open-closed" transition of cytochrome c oxidase. Reductive titration of the cyanide-inhibited enzyme with ferrocytochrome c shows a nonlinear response of the fluorescence shift to added electron equivalents. A theoretical treatment of the reduction of the two interacting sites of the cyanide-inhibited enzyme has been developed that gives the population of each redox state as a function of the total number of electrons accepted by the enzyme. This treatment depends on two parameters: the difference in redox potential between the two metals and the redox interaction between the redox centers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Interaction of pulmonary surfactant-associated protein (SP-A) with surfactant lipids.

A pulmonary surfactant-associated protein complex with components of 36, 32 and 28 kDa was isolated from human lung homogenates and reassembled with surfactant lipids prepared as small unilamellar liposomes. The role of divalent cations in the assembly of this recombinant lipoprotein complex was studied by monitoring the changes in turbidity, intrinsic tryptophanyl fluorescence and surface activity. The protein-facilitated lipid aggregation was promoted on addition of 5 to 20 mM Ca2+. Intrinsic fluorescence measurements on SP-A (28-36 kDa) indicated that the tryptophan side chains were in a relatively hydrophobic environment, that the wavelength of maximum fluorescence emission and also the relative fluorescence, were changed upon the binding of lipid. Tryptophanyl fluorescence of the lipoprotein assembly was quenched as indicated by a reduction in the effective Stern-Volmer constant. These results suggest that Ca2+ lipid-protein interactions are involved in the structure and function of extracellular lung surfactant assembly.     

Differential nucleotide binding to catalytic and noncatalytic sites and related conformational changes involving alpha/beta-subunit interactions as monitored by sensitive intrinsic fluorescence in Schizosaccharomyces pombe mitochondrial F1.

Mitochondrial F1 from the yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe exhibits an intrinsic tryptophan fluorescence sensitive to adenine nucleotides and inorganic phosphate [Divita, G., Di Pietro, A., Deléage, G., Roux, B., & Gautheron, D.C. (1991) Biochemistry 30, 3256-3262]. The present results indicate that the intrinsic fluorescence is differentially modified by nucleotide binding to either catalytic or noncatalytic sites. Guanine or hypoxanthine nucleotides, which selectively bind to the catalytic site, produce a hyperbolic saturation monitored by fluorescence quenching at 332 nm, the maximal emission wavelength. On the contrary, adenine nucleotides, which bind to both catalytic and noncatalytic sites, exhibit a biphasic saturation. High-affinity ATP binding produces a marked quenching as opposed to the lower-affinity one. In contrast, ADP exhibits a sigmoidal saturation, with high-affinity binding producing no quenching but responsible for positive cooperativity of binding to the lower-affinity site. The catalytic-site affinity for GDP is almost 20-fold higher at pH 5.0 as compared to pH 9.0, and the high sensitivity of the method allows detection of the 10-fold lower-affinity GMP binding. In contrast, high-affinity binding of ADP, or AMP, is not pH-dependent. The selective catalytic-site saturation induces a F1 conformational change decreasing the Stern-Volmer constant for acrylamide and the tryptophan fraction accessible to iodide. ATP saturation of both catalytic and noncatalytic sites produces an additional reduction of the accessible fraction to acrylamide.     

Reversal of quinone-induced chlorophyll fluorescence quenching

We have used two methods to investigate the reversibility of the interaction of substituted quinones with the thylakoid membrane of plant chloroplasts. Treatment of chloroplasts with added quinones lowers the room-temperature Photosystem II chlorophyll fluorescence intensity by variable amounts depending on the identity and concentration of the quinone. The extent of restoration of the chlorophyll fluorescence level is used as a measure of the effectiveness of the reversal technique. One reversal method involves the addition of thiols to quinone-treated chloroplasts to alter the quinone in a chemical way via a nucleophilic 1,4-Michael addition. In general, the modified quinones exhibit a lower affinity for the thylakoid membrane, as evidenced by an accompanying increase in chlorophyll fluorescence. The thiol concentrations necessary for quenching reversal are found to be in the order [dithiothreitol] less than [2-mercaptoethanol] less than [glutathione]. The second reversal method examines the extent to which added quinones can be removed from thylakoid membranes using a concentration gradient established by resuspension of quinone-treated chloroplasts in quinone-free media. The results further support the reversible nature of the quinone inhibition and indicate that the extent of recovery is dependent upon the degree of fluorescence inhibition originally induced by the added quinone.     

Determination of four apparent mercury interaction sites in photosystem II by using a new modification of the Stern-Volmer analysis

We used the Stern-Volmer method to analyze the mercury fluorescence quenching effect in the green alga Dunaliella tertiolecta. To this end, we introduced a new modification of the Stern-Volmer equation on the basis of the Lineweaver-Burk analysis used to characterize allosteric enzyme activity. This modification was useful to determine the Stern-Volmer constant, the parameter indicating the fraction of PSII fluorescence susceptible to the mercury quenching effect (Fs), and to estimate the apparent number of mercury binding sites (Napp = 3.72) on PSII which affect the variable fluorescence. This value of Napp indicates the possibility of four mercury binding sites in the PSII complex. We suggested that this may be related to the mercury inhibition of the oxygen-evolving complex containing four Mn active sites.     

Ganglioside GM3 modulates conformation of reconstituted Ca~(2 ) -ATPase

Using steady-state fluorescence and nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence techniques, the Ca 2 -ATPase conformational changes induced by ganglioside GM3 were studied with different quenchers. The results showed that GM3 could significantly increase the lifetime of intrinsic fluorescence of Ca2 -ATPase reconstituted into proteoliposomes, and could also weaken the intrinsic fluorescence quenching by KI or hypocrellin B, HB. Further-more, by using quenching kinetic analysis of the time-resolved fluorescence, in the presence of GM3, the quenching constant (Ksv) and quenching efficiency were significantly lowered. The obtained results suggest that the oligosaccha-ride chain and the ceramide moieties of the GM3 molecule could interact with its counterparts of the Ca2 -ATPase re-spectively, thus change the conformation of the hydrophobic domain of the enzyme, making the tryptophan residues in different regions shift towards the hydrophilic-hydrophobic interface, and hence shorten the distance between the hy     

粪臭素对胃蛋白酶部分理化性质的影响

采用紫外光谱法和荧光光谱法研究了粪臭素与胃蛋白酶的结合作用。观测到粪臭素使胃蛋白酶的紫外吸收峰增强,特征荧光峰淬灭。Stern-Volmer淬灭曲线显示,粪臭素对胃蛋白酶的荧光淬灭很可能是一个单一的静态淬灭过程。     

茶碱与胃蛋白酶相互作用的光谱性质研究

采用紫外光谱法和荧光光谱法研究了茶碱与胃蛋白酶的结合作用。观测到茶碱使胃蛋白酶的紫外吸收峰增强,特征荧光峰淬灭。Stern-Volmer淬灭曲线显示,茶碱对胃蛋白酶的荧光淬灭很可能是一个单一的静态淬灭过程。     

Interaction of 3'-azido-3'-deamino daunorubicin with human serum albumin: investigation by fluorescence spectroscopy and molecular modeling methods

In this Letter, the binding of 3'-azido-3'-deamino daunorubicin (ADNR) to human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated at different temperatures by fluorescence spectroscopy at pH 7.4. The binding constant was determined according to Stern-Volmer equation based on the fluorescence quenching of HSA in the presence of ADNR. The thermodynamic parameters, ΔH and ΔS, were calculated according to the dependence of enthalpy change on the temperature to be -21.01 kJ mol(-1) and 24.71 J K(-l) mol(-l), respectively. The results revealed that ADNR had a strong ability to quench the intrinsic fluorescence of HSA through a static quenching procedure. The hydrophobic force played a major role in the interaction of ADNR with HSA, which was in good agreement with the results of molecular modeling study. The effect of various metal ions on the binding constants of ADNR with HSA was also investigated. All the experimental results and theoretical data indicated that ADNR could bind to HSA and be effectively transported and eliminated in body, which might be a useful guideline for further drug design.     

Fluorescence studies on the role of tryptophan in heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles of HeLa cells.

The 40 S heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein (hnRNP) particles from HeLa cells reveal tryptophan fluorescence with a bi-exponential decay, indicating that only a few of the 'core' proteins contain tryptophan residues. The presence of tryptophan residues distinguishes hnRNP particles from nucleosomes, with which they otherwise share a number of properties. This difference, however, is not essential for protein-RNA binding, as the fluorescence decay remains unchanged when hnRNP particles are dissociated into protein and RNA. However, the Stern-Volmer quenching constant is doubled upon salt dissociation, i.e. tryptophan residues become more accessible to solvent. Thus tryptophan quenching is a useful parameter for monitoring protein-protein interactions in hnRNP particles.     

A photoreversible conformational change in 124 kDa Avena phytochrome

Tryptophan (Trp) fluorescence quenching of phytochrome has been studied using anionic, cationic and neutral quenchers, I-, Cs+ and acrylamide, respectively, in an effort to understand the molecular differences between the Pr and Pfr forms. The data have been analyzed using both Stern-Volmer and modified Stern-Volmer kinetic treatments. The anionic quencher, I-, was proven to be an ineffective quencher with Stern-Volmer constants, Ksv, of 0.60 and 0.63 M-1, respectively, for the Pr and Pfr forms of phytochrome. The cationic quencher, Cs+, showed about a 2-fold difference in the Ksv of Pr and Pfr, indicating a significant change in the fluorescent Trp environments during the Pr to Pfr phototransformation. However, only 25-37% of the fluorescent Trp residues were accessible to the cationic quencher. Most of the fluorescent Trp residues were accessible to acrylamide, but the quenching by acrylamide was indistinguishable for the Pr and Pfr forms. An additional quenching by acrylamide after a saturated quenching with Cs+ showed more than 40% increase in the Ksv of Pfr over Pr. These observations, along with the finding of two distinct components in the Trp fluorescence lifetime, indicate the existence of Trp residues in at least two different sets of environments in the phytochrome protein. The two components of the fluorescence had lifetimes of 1.1 ns (major) and 4.7 ns (minor) for Pr and 0.9 ns (major) and 4.6 ns (minor) for Pfr. Fluorescence quenching was found to be both static and dynamic as the Stern-Volmer constants for the steady-state fluorescence quenching were higher than for the dynamic fluorescence quenching. Based on the quenching results, in combination with the location of Trp residues in the primary structure, we conclude that the Pr to Pfr phototransformation involves a significant conformation change in the phytochrome molecule, preferentially in the 74 kDa chromophore-bearing domain.     

Ganglioside GM3 modulates conformation of reconstituted ca2+-ATPase

Using steady-state fluorescence and nanosecond time-resolved fluorescence techniques, the ca²⁺ ATPase conformational changes induced by ganglioside GM3 were studied with different quenchers. The results showed that GM3 could significantly increase the lifetime of intrinsic fluorescence of Ca²⁺-ATPase reconstituted into proteoliposomes, and could also weaken the intrinsic fluorescence quenching by KI or hypocrellin B, HB. Furthermore, by using quenching kinetic analysis of the time-resolved fluorescence, in the presence of GM3, the quenching constant (K_3V) and quenching efficiency were significantly lowered. The obtained results suggest that the oligosaccharide chain and the ceramide moieties of the GM3 molecule could interact with its counterparts of the ca²⁺-ATPase respectively, thus change the conformation of the hydrophobic domain of the enzyme, making the tryptophan residues in different regions shift towards the hydrophilic-hydrophobic interface, and hence shorten the distance between the hydrophilic and the hydrophobic domains, making the enzyme with a more compact form exhibit higher enzyme activity.     

Fluorescence quenching studies on binding fluoreno-9-spiro-oxazolidinedione to human serum albumin.

Human serum albumin fluorescence quenching by fluorene-9-spiro-oxazolidinedione has been analyzed as a function of temperature. Such temperature dependence suggests that the mechanism of the quenching process is static in origin. This type of quenching implies that a non-fluorescent complex between oxazolidinedione and serum albumin has been formed and following the Stern-Volmer relationship we have calculated the binding constant. Thermodynamic parameters were also determined. The positive and large values of entropy and the negative value for enthalpy suggest that both hydrophobic and electrostatic interactions may play an important role in the stabilization of the complex. Finally, the irreversible changes in the spectral properties of HSA are interpreted in binding terms.