The primary structure of the mitochondrial energy-linked nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase deduced from the sequence of cDNA clones

The amino acid sequence of the bovine mitochondrial nicotinamide nucleotide transhydrogenase, which catalyzes hydride ion transfer between NAD(H) and NADP(H) coupled to proton translocation across the mitochondrial inner membrane, has been deduced from the corresponding cDNA. Two clones were isolated by screening a bovine lambda gt10 cDNA library, using two synthetic oligonucleotides and a cDNA restriction fragment as probes. The inserts together covered 3,105 base pairs of coding sequence, corresponding to 1.035 amino acid residues. However, the reading frame at the 5' end was still open. N-terminal sequence analysis of the isolated enzyme indicated the presence of 8 additional residues. Thus, the mature transhydrogenase appeared to have 1,043 amino acid residues and a calculated molecular weight of 109,212. The deduced amino acid sequence of the transhydrogenase contained the sequences of four tryptic peptides that had been isolated from the enzyme. Two of these were the peptides that had been used for construction of the oligonucleotide probes. The other two were tryptic peptides isolated after labeling the NAD-binding site of the transhydrogenase once with [3H]p-fluorosulfonylbenzoyl-5'-adenosine (FSBA), and another time with [14C]N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide. The FSBA-labeled peptide was found to be located immediately upstream of the [14C]N,N'-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide-labeled peptide, about 230 residues from the N terminus. One of the tryptic peptides used for oligonucleotide probe construction was the same as that labeled with [3H]FSBA when the NAD-binding site was protected from FSBA attack. This peptide, which might be at the NADP-binding site of the transhydrogenase, was located very near the C terminus of the enzyme. The central region of the transhydrogenase (residues 420-850) is highly hydrophobic and appears to comprise about 14 membrane-spanning segments. By comparison, the N- and the C-terminal regions of the enzyme, which contain the NAD- and the putative NADP-binding sites, respectively, are relatively hydrophilic and are probably located outside the mitochondrial inner membrane on the matrix side. There is considerable homology between the bovine enzyme and the Escherichia coli transhydrogenase (two subunits, alpha with Mr = 54,000 and beta with Mr = 48,700), whose amino acid sequence has been determined from the genes (Clarke, D.M., Loo, T.W., Gillam, S., and Bragg, P.D. (1986) Eur. J. Biochem. 158, 647-653).