1. A new type of alcohol-oxidizing en-zyme has been purified from
Acetobacter sp.. The resulting preparation had more than one hundred times as high a specific activity as the cell-free extract. The highly purified en-zyme contained a hemeprotein with an absorp-tion spectrum similar to that of cytochrome c, its reduced α-absorption peak being located at 553mμ.
2. In the presence of ethanol, the enzyme reduced various oxidation-reduction dyes in-cluding ferricyanide and 2, 6-dichlorophenol-indophenol, which were either uni- and di-electron acceptors. TPN and DPN were not reduced at all. The hemeprotein was imme-diately reduced by the addition of ethanol.
3. Of the buffers tested, the enzyme was most active in citrate buffer and the optimal pH was 3.8. In this buffer, it was fairly stable from pH 5.0 to 7.0 at temperatures below 45°C. Inactivation of the enzyme proceeded in parallel with the break down of the heme-protein.
4. The enzyme lost 40 per cent of its activity after 24-hours dialysis against deioniz-ed water at 3-4°C. Of the ions tested, only Mg
++ activated the dialyzed enzyme slightly, while NH
4+, Zn
++ Fe
+++ and PO
4--- were strongly inhibitory.
5. The sulfhydryl reagents tested, includ-ing
p-chloromercuribenzoate, did not inhibit the enzyme activity, while all the carbonyl and metal-chelating reagents tested, including semicarbazide and fluoride, were more or less inhibitory.
6. Using ferricyanide as an electron ac-ceptor, the enzyme showed a broad substrate specificity; Almost all the saturated and un-saturated straight chain monoalcohols tested were rapidly oxidized, but iso-alcohols were not. With ferricyanide the Km (moles/liter) was 2.1×10
-3 for ethanol, 2.4×10
-3 for
n-pro-panol, 2.3×l0
-3 for
n-butanol, 1.2×l0
-3 for
n-pentanol and 1.3×10
-3 for allylalcohol. The Km for ferricyanide was 3.5×10
-4 with etha-nol, 2.3×10
-4 with
n-propanol and 1.6×10
-4 with
n-butanol.
7. The hemeprotein was rapidly reduced by acetaldehyde in the presence of the co-enzyme-independent aldehyde dehydrogenase (
Acetobacter), but not in its absence.
8. Based upon these results, the steric configuration and the active centers of the enzyme molecule were discussed the likelihood that the hemeprotein itself had enzyme acti-vity indicated. It was proposed to name the enzyme “alcohol-cytochrome-553 reductase (
Acetobacter)”.
9. The electron-transfer system of the micro-organism was discussed in the light of the results of this series of reports and the fact that acetic acid is accumulated to a great extent as an intermediate product of ethanol oxidation was stressed.
The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Prof. K. Okunuki, Department of Biology, Facul-ty of Science, University of Osaka, Osaka, for his valuable guidance during this study, and to Miss A. Inoue for her technical assistance.
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