Carboxymethylhydroxymuconic semialdehyde dehydrogenase in the 4-hydroxyphenylacetate catabolic pathway of Escherichia coli

5-Carboxymethyl-2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde dehydrogenase in the 4-hydroxyphenylacetate meta-cleavage pathway has been purified to 96% homogeneity. The native enzyme, which appears to be a tetramer, has an apparent molecular weight of 210000. The purified enzyme shows a narrow pH optimum at pH 7.8 and does not require ions for its catalytic activity. Under standard assay conditions the enzyme acts preferentially with NAD but reduces NADP at 11% of the rate observed for NAD, primarily because of a difference in K_m. Apparent K_m values are 6.4 μM for 5-carboxymethyl-2-hydroxymuconic semialdehyde and 52.2 μM for NAD.