Steady-state kinetics of low molecular weight (type-II) NADH dehydrogenase.

(1) The steady-state kinetics of the NADH dehydrogenase activity of Type-II (low molecular weight) NADH dehydrogenase with the acceptors ferricyanide, cytochrome c and 2,6-dichloroindophenol are consistent with the simultaneous operation of an ordered and a ping-pong mechanism. Thus, depending on the acceptor concentration, the reduced enzyme is preferentially oxidized before or after NAD+ disociates from it. (2) The acceptors are able to oxidize the reduced enzyme and its NAD+ complex equally well. In contrast to the kinetics of the Type-I (high molecular weight) enzyme, double substrate inhibition is not found, implying that the site of oxidation of the reduced enzyme by acceptors and the NADH-binding site are remote. (3) With the indophenol, in the concentration range measured, the ordered mechanism is mainly operative. At infinite NADH and acceptor concentrations the rate constant of the reduction of enzyme by bound NADH is measured. (4) With ferricyanide and cytochrome c, in the concentration range measured, erroneous conclusions may be drawn from extrapolations owing to the fact that extrapolated lines in double-reciprocal plots of turnover number against acceptor concentration, at different NADH concentrations, intersect in the third quadrant. A method is described that allows the extrapolation of these data to zero acceptor concentrations. (5) The relation between activity and NADH concentration is sigmoidal (h = 2.0) with ferricyanide or cytochrome c as acceptor, but hyperbolic with 2,6-dichloroindophenol. The latter is also an inhibitor, competitive with respect to NADH. It is concluded that this two-electron acceptor, like ubiquinone, acts as an allosteric effector. (6) Type II is isolated from Type I without gross changes in tertiary structure, as judged by the unaltered rate constants of dissociation of NADH (k-1) and NAD+ (k4) and association of NADH (k1). (7) Type II differs from Type I in two respects, (a) The accessibility of the acceptors is greater by at least two orders of magnitude (k3). (b) The redox potential of the prosthetic group FMN is 120 mV less, as judged by a drop in the value of k2 by four orders of magnitude. It is suggested that one or more of the iron-sulphur proteins present in Type-I but lacking in Type-II dehydrogenase functions as an effector, regulating the redox potential of the FMN.