Effects of diphenyl ether herbicides on porphyrin accumulation by cultured hepatocytes

Several diphenyl ether herbicides, such as acifluorfen methyl, have been previously shown to cause large accumulations of the heme and chlorophyll precursor, protoporphyrin, in plants. Lightinduced herbicidal damage is mediated by the photoactive porphyrin. Here we investigate whether diphenyl ether herbicides can affect porphyrin synthesis in rat and chick hepatocytes. In rat hepatocyte cultures, protoporphyrin, as well as coproporphyrin, accumulated after treatment with acifluorfen or acifluorfen methyl. Combination of acifluorfen methyl with an esterase inhibitor to prevent the conversion of acifluorfen methyl to acifluorfen resulted in a greater accumulation of porphyrins than caused by acifluorfen methyl or acifluorfen alone. In vitro enzyme studies of hepatic mitochondria isolated from rat and chick embryos demonstrated that protopor-phyrinogen oxidase, the penultimate enzyme of heme biosynthesis, was inhibited by low concentrations of acifluorfen, nitrofen, or acifluorfen methyl with the latter being the most potent inhibitor. These findings indicate that diphenyl ether treatment can cause protoporphyrin accumulation in rat hepatocyte cultures and suggest that this accumulation was associated with the inhibition of protoporphyrinogen oxidase. In cultured chick embryo hepatocytes, treatment with acifluorfen methyl plus an esterase inhibitor caused massive accumulation of uroporphyrin rather than protoporphyrin or coproporphyrin. Specific isozymes of cytochrome P450 were also induced in chick embryo hepatocytes. These effects were not observed in the absence of an esterase inhibitor. These results suggest that diphenyl ether herbicides can cause uroporphyrin accumulation similar to that induced by other cytochrome P450-inducing chemicals such as polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons in the chick hepatocyte system.     

Translation termination factor aRF1 from the archaeon Methanococcus jannaschii is active with eukaryotic ribosomes

A bacterioferritin was recently isolated from the anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 [Romão et al. (2000) Biochemistry 39, 6841–6849]. Although its properties are in general similar to those of the other bacterioferritins, it contains a haem quite distinct from the haem B, found in bacterioferritins from aerobic organisms. Using visible and NMR spectroscopies, as well as mass spectrometry analysis, the haem is now unambiguously identified as iron-coproporphyrin III, the first example of such a prosthetic group in a biological system. This unexpected finding is discussed in the framework of haem biosynthetic pathways in anaerobes and particularly in sulphate-reducing bacteria.     

脱氮假单胞菌生产维生素B12过程中粪卟啉Ⅲ的测定及发酵调控

脱氮假单胞菌发酵生产维生素B₁₂过程中,副产物粪卟啉Ⅲ的积累对产物的代谢合成和分离提取有很大的影响。建立了发酵液中粪卟啉Ⅲ的HPLC快速测定方法,发酵液处理后直接进样测定,检测线性范围为12~275 μg/ml,重复性好。研究了不同供氧水平、二氧化碳浓度和pH值对发酵过程中维生素B₁₂和粪卟啉Ⅲ代谢合成的影响,并在120吨发酵罐中进行了发酵过程优化控制。结果表明:在发酵过程产物的合成期控制适当的供氧水平、控制二氧化碳浓度在8.6±0.8%、维持pH值在7.0±0.12能明显抑制卟啉Ⅲ的生物合成,同时使维生素B₁₂产量提高15%。     

Divergent pathways for δ-aminolevulinic acid synthesis in two species of Arthrobacter

Abstract Secretion of coproporphyrin III by suspensions of Arthrobacter photogonimos and A. globiformis facilitated analysis of the paths of synthesis of δ-aminolevulinic acid, the precursor of tetrapyrroles. Sensitivity of coproporphyrin accumulation to gabaculine and incorporation of ¹⁴C from [1-¹⁴C]glutamate indicated that suspensions of A. photogonimos synthesized δ-aminolevulinic acid from glutamate by the widespread C5 pathway. In contrast, A. globiformis cells switched from predominantly the C5 pathway for δ-aminolevulinic acid synthesis in early exponential phase cultures to δ-aminblevulinic acid synthase in stationary phase cultures.     

Iron-coproporphyrin III is a natural cofactor in bacterioferritin from the anaerobic bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans

A bacterioferritin was recently isolated from the anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ATCC 27774 [Romão et al. (2000) Biochemistry 39, 6841–6849]. Although its properties are in general similar to those of the other bacterioferritins, it contains a haem quite distinct from the haem B, found in bacterioferritins from aerobic organisms. Using visible and NMR spectroscopies, as well as mass spectrometry analysis, the haem is now unambiguously identified as iron-coproporphyrin III, the first example of such a prosthetic group in a biological system. This unexpected finding is discussed in the framework of haem biosynthetic pathways in anaerobes and particularly in sulphate-reducing bacteria.     

Control of the syntheses of bacteriochlorophyll,c- and b-type cytochromes,and coproporphyrin III in Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides mutant H5

Rhodopseudomonas sphaerodes mutant H5 lacking 5-aminolevulinic acid synthase was grown phototrophically in chemostat cultures limited by malate. Tetrapyrrole formation was limited by 5-aminolevulinic acid. With variation of dilution rates the cultures exhibited two regions of almost constant cell protein, dry weight and bacteriochlorophyll levels suggesting the formation of two physiological modifications of the strain. These modifications were further characterized by differences in the rates of 5-aminolevulinic acid consumption, the production of reserve material, the stoichiometries of 5-aminolevulinic acid consumption and bacteriochlorophyll or cytochrome production, specific bacteriochlorophyll and cytochrome contents as well as the ratio of bacteriochlorophyll protein complexes. In contrast, cellular levels of coproporphyrin II stayed almost constant over the entire range of dilution rates employed. Bacteriochlorophyll and b-type cytochrome cellular levels exhibited hyperbolic dependencies on the specific rate of 5-aminolevulinic acid consumption, and c-type cytochrome levels a signmoidal dependency. Bacteriochlorophyll cellular levels showed a biphasic dependency with half maximal saturations at 2.6 and 15.4 nmol of 5-aminolevulinic acid consumed per mg of protein and h, and maximal levels of 15.2 and 21 nmol bacteriochlorophyll per mg of protein. Cellular levels of c- and b-type cytochromes were half maximally saturated at 19.5 and 14.5 nmol 5-aminolevulinic acid consumed per mg protein and h while maximal levels were reached at 0.5 and 0.17 nmol of c- and b-type cytochromes, respectively, per mg of protein.The data suggest that within the cell bacteriochlorophyll as well as c- and b-type cytochrome units are assembled according to a defined pattern of kinetics characteristic of each group of compounds. Under otherwise constant external conditions the expression of the pattern is controlled by the rate of 5-aminolevulinic acid supply.     

Ascaris lumbricoides: Coproporphyrinogen oxidase activity in eggs and muscle

The possible presence of coproporphyrinogen oxidase (EC 1.3.3.3), an oxygen-requiring enzyme in the porphyrin biosynthetic pathway, was investigated in supernatant fractions of homogenized Ascaris lumbricoides muscle and developing eggs, and in mitochondrial preparations of muscle. Compared with rat liver controls, low levels of enzyme activity were found in A. lumbricoides gut, 6-day eggs, and muscle mitochondria. Enzyme activity in muscle, 8-day, and 25-day eggs was not measurable under the conditions employed.     

Leishmania spp.: delta-aminolevulinate-inducible neogenesis of porphyria by genetic complementation of incomplete heme biosynthesis pathway

To further develop the Leishmania model for porphyria based on their deficiencies in heme biosynthesis, three Old World species were doubly transfected as before for Leishmania amazonensis with cDNAs, encoding the 2nd and 3rd enzymes in the pathway. Expression of the transgenes was verified immunologically at the protein level and functionally by uroporphyrin neogenesis that occurs only after exposure of the double-transfectants to delta-aminolevulinate. All species examined were equally deficient in heme biosynthesis, as indicated by the accumulation of uroporphyrin as the sole porphyrin and the production of coproporphyrin upon further transfection of one representative species with the downstream gene. The results obtained thus demonstrate that at least the first five enzymes for heme biosynthesis are absent in all species examined, rendering their transfectants inducible with aminolevulinate to accumulate porphyrins and thus useful as cellular models for human porphyrias.     

Biochemical characterization of protoporphyrinogen dehydrogenase and protoporphyrin ferrochelatase of Vibrio vulnificus and the critical complex formation between these enzymes

Background

Protoporphyrin IX (PPn), an intermediate in the heme biosynthesis reaction, generates singlet oxygen upon exposure to UV light. It has been proposed that PPn is channeled directly to ferrochelatase within a protoporphyrinogen dehydrogenase (PgdH1)-protoporphyrin ferrochelatase (PpfC) complex as a way to avoid this damaging side reaction. However, the PgdH1-PpfC complex has not been characterized, and the question of how heme affects the activities of PgdH1 has not been addressed.

Effect of insulin and glucagon on accumulation of uroporphyrin and coproporphyrin from 5-aminolevulinate in hepatocyte cultures

Primary cultures of chick embryo hepatocytes have been used to study the mechanisms by which various drugs and other chemicals cause accumulation of porphyrin intermediates of the heme pathway. When these cultures are incubated with the heme precursor, 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA), there is a major accumulation of protoporphyrin. However, in the presence of ALA, addition of insulin caused a striking increase in accumulation of uroporphyrin I and coproporphyrin III, whereas addition of glucagon mainly caused an increase in uroporphyrin I. Treatment with both insulin and glucagon resulted in additive increases in uroporphyrin, but not coproporphyrin. Antioxidants abolished the uroporphyrin I accumulation and increased coproporphyrin III. Insulin caused an increase in uptake of ALA and an increase in porphobilinogen accumulation, suggesting that the accumulation of uroporphyrin I is due to increased flux through the heme pathway. Apparently, this increased flux could particularly affect the utilization of the intermediate hydroxymethylbilane, which would result in accumulation of uroporphyrin I.