Studies on NO2-Tyr82and NH2-Tyr82 derivatives of adrenodoxin. Effects of chemical modification on electron transferring activity.

Bovine apoadrenodoxin was treated with tetranitromethane to introduce a nitro group into the tyrosyl residue at position 82 of this protein. The degrees of nitration under the best conditions were estimated to be 90% and nearly 100% on the basis of amino acid analysis and the spectrophotometric method, respectively. An amino derivative was prepared by reducing the nitro group with sodium dithionite. The apoadrenodoxin derivatives could be reconstituted to have an iron-sulfur chromophore similar to the native adrenodoxin which contains a 1:1 molar ratio of labile sulfur to iron content and displays absorption peaks at 414 and 450 nm. The enzymatic acitivies of these reconstituted nitro and amino derivatives toward cytochrome c reduction in the presence of adrenodoxin reductase and NADPH were 19 and 7% of native adrenodoxin, respectively. We studied the kinetics of the direct reduction of the reconstituted amino derivative in the presence of NADPH and adrenodoxin reductase under anaerobic conditons. The initial rate of reduction for the amino derivative was 7% of the native adrenodoxin, which is in good agreement with its activity toward cytochrome c reduction. From these results, it is concluded that by modifying the tyrosyl residue at position 82 of the adrenodoxin polypeptide, the electron-transferring activity of the molecule is largely diminished.