Purification and characterization of sulfide-quinone reductase, a novel enzyme driving anoxygenic photosynthesis in Oscillatoria limnetica

An enzyme catalyzing sulfide quinone oxido-reduction (E.C.1.8.5.'.; SQR) has been purified in an active form, from thylakoids of the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria limnetica. It is composed of a single polypeptide of about 57 kDa. The catalytic activity of the purified enzyme is similar to the membrane-bound form in its kinetic parameters: apparent K(m) for sulfide equals 8 μM; V(max) of 100-150 μmol of plastoquinone-1 reduced/mg protein/h; quinone-substrate specificity; differential sensitivity to quinone analog inhibitors, the most potent of which being aurachin C (I₅₀ = 7 nM), and specific inducibility by sulfide. Taken together, they suggest that the purified SQR is the enzyme catalyzing anoxygenic photosynthesis in cyanobacteria. The UV and visible absorption and fluorescence spectra of the purified SQR are typical of a flavoprotein. Both the absorption and fluorescence intensities are reduced by sulfide. The SQR activity is inhibited by KCN, a flavoprotein inhibitor. We have sequenced so far 29 amino acid residues of the SQR NH₂ terminus and found that from the second residue, this sequence contains the highly conserved fingerprint of the NAD/FAD-binding domain of many NAD/FAD-binding enzymes (Wierenga, R. K., Terpstra, P., and Hol, W. G. S. (1986) J. Mol. Biol. 187, 101-107). This suggests that the SQR enzyme is a flavoprotein which contains binding sites for sulfide and quinone and that the electron transfer between the two is mediated by FAD.