Properties of respiratory chain-linked Na(+)-independent NADH-quinone reductase in a marine Vibrio alginolyticus.

The respiratory chain of a marine Vibrio alginolyticus contains two types of NADH-quinone reductase (NQR): one is an Na(+)-dependent NQR functioning as an Na+ pump (NQR-1) and the other is an Na(+)-independent NQR (NQR-2). NQR-2 was purified about 55-fold from the membrane of mutant Nap-1 which is devoid of NQR-1, and its properties were compared with those of NQR-1. In contrast to NQR-1, the purified NQR-2 does not require any salts for activity and is not inhibited by up to 0.4 M salts. The optimum pH of NQR-2 is between 6.8 and 7.8, which is about 0.7 ph units lower than that of NQR-1. NQR-2 is insensitive to strong inhibitors of NQR-1 such as p-chloromercuribenzoate, Ag+ and 2-heptyl-4-hydroxyquinoline N-oxide. Using inverted membrane vesicles, it was confirmed that NQR-2 has no capacity to generate a membrane potential. NQR-2 reduces menadione and ubiquinone-1 by a two-electron reduction pathway. Since the NADH-reacting FAD-containing beta-subunit of NQR-1 reduces quinones by a one-electron reduction pathway, the mode of quinone reduction is closely related to energy coupling; the formation of semiquinone radicals as an intermediate is likely to be essential to functioning as an ion pump.