Gramicidin S identified as a potent inhibitor for cytochrome bd-type quinol oxidase

AbstractGramicidin S, a cationic cyclic decapeptide, exhibits the potent antibiotic activity through perturbation of lipid bilayers of the bacterial membrane. From the screening of natural antibiotics, we identified gramicidin S as a potent inhibitor for cytochrome bd-type quinol oxidase from Escherichia coli. We found that gramicidin S inhibited the oxidase with IC50 of 3.5μM by decreasing Vmax and the affinity for substrates but showed the stimulatory effect at low concentrations. Our findings would provide a new insight into the development of gramicidin S analogs, which do not share the target and mechanism with conventional antibiotics

Observation of the FeO2 and FeIVO stretching Raman bands for dioxygen reduction intermediates of cytochrome bo isolated from Escherichia coli

AbstractReaction intermediates in dioxygen reduction by the E. coli cytochrome bo-type ubiquinol oxidase were studied by time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy using the artificial cardiovascular system. At 0–20 μs following photolysis of the enzyme—CO adduct in the presence of O2, we observed the FeO2 stretching Raman band at 568 cm−1 which shifted to 535 cm−1 with the 18O2 derivative. These frequencies are remarkably close to those of other oxyhemoproteins including dioxygen-bound hemoglobin and aa3-type cytochrome c oxidase. In the later time range (20–40 μs), other oxygen-isotope-sensitive Raman bands were observed at 788 and 361 cm−1. Since the 781 cm−1 band exhibited a downshift by 37 cm−1 upon 18O2 substitution, we assigned it to the FeIVO stretching mode. This band is considered to arise from the ferryl intermediate, but its appearance was much earlier than the corresponding intermediate of bovine cytochrome c oxidase (> 100 μs). The 361 cm−1 band showed the 16O/18O isotopic frequency shift of 14 cm−1 similar to the case of bovine cytochrome c oxidase reaction

Role of a bound ubiquinone on reactions of the Escherichia coli cytochrome bo with ubiquinol and dioxygen11This work was supported in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas (08249106) and for Scientific Research (B) (08458202) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, Japan. This is paper XXXIII in the series ‘Structure-function studies on the Escherichia coli cytochrome bo’.

AbstractTo probe the functional role of a bound ubiquinone-8 in cytochrome bo-type ubiquinol oxidase from Escherichia coli, we examined reactions with ubiquinol-1 and dioxygen. Stopped-flow studies showed that anaerobic reduction of the wild-type and the bound ubiquinone-free (ΔUbiA) enzymes with ubiquinol-1 immediately takes place with four kinetic phases. Replacement of the bound ubiquinone with 2,6-dibromo-4-cyanophenol (PC32) suppressed the anaerobic reduction of the hemes with ubiquinol-1 by eliminating the fast phase. Flow-flash studies in the reaction of the fully reduced enzyme with dioxygen showed that the heme b to heme o electron transfer occurs with a rate constant of ∼104 s−1 in all three preparations. These results support our previous proposal that the bound ubiquinone is involved in facile oxidation of substrates in subunit II and subsequent intramolecular electron transfer to low-spin heme b in subunit I