Abstract
Mechanistically informative chemical probes are used to characterize the activity of functional alkane hydroxylases in whole cells. Norcarane is a substrate used to reveal the lifetime of radical intermediates formed during alkane oxidation. Results from oxidations of this probe with organisms that contain the two most prevalent medium-chain-length alkane-oxidizing metalloenzymes, alkane ω-monooxygenase (AlkB) and cytochrome P450 (CYP), are reported. The results-radical lifetimes of 1-7 ns for AlkB and less than 100 ps for CYP-indicate that these two classes of enzymes are mechanistically distinguishable and that whole-cell mechanistic assays can identify the active hydroxylase. The oxidation of norcarane by several recently isolated strains (Hydrocarboniphaga effusa AP103, rJ4, and rJ5, whose alkane-oxidizing enzymes have not yet been identified) is also reported. Radical lifetimes of 1-3 ns are observed, consistent with these organisms containing an AlkB-like enzyme and inconsistent with their employing a CYP-like enzyme for growth on hydrocarbons.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 165-172 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Chemistry and Biology |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2007 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Biochemistry
- Molecular Medicine
- Molecular Biology
- Pharmacology
- Drug Discovery
- Clinical Biochemistry
Keywords
- CHEMBIOL