Multiple forms of liver microsomal flavin-containing monooxygenases: complete covalent structure of form 2.

Hepatic flavin-containing monooxygenases catalyze NADPH-dependent oxygenation of a wide variety of drugs that possess a nucleophilic heteroatom. Two forms of these enzymes (form 1 and 2) have been isolated from rabbit liver microsomes and partially characterized (Ozols, J., 1989, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 163, 49-55). The complete amino acid sequence of form 2 is presented here. Sequence determination was achieved by pulsed liquid-phase and solid-phase sequencing of 40 peptides generated by chemical and enzymatic cleavages, including CNBr cleavage of tryptophanyl residues. Form 2 monooxygenase contains 533 amino acid residues and has a molecular weight of 60,089. The COOH terminus of this enzyme is very hydrophobic and presumably functions to anchor the protein to the membrane. Form 2 is readily degraded, since a form lacking residues 1 to 278 and a form without the COOH-terminal segment were also isolated from solubilized membrane preparations. The amino acid sequence of form 2 is 52% identical to that of form 1 and shows 55% identity to the sequence of rabbit lung monooxygenase derived from the cDNA data. The putative FAD and NADP binding segments around residues 9 and 190 are conserved in all three forms. Three variable segments can also be identified in these isoforms. These are residues 308 to 321, residues 408 to 421, and the membrane binding domain, residues 505 to 533. A comparison of the presently limited amino acid sequence data of flavin-containing monooxygenases (FMOs) implies that a particular FMO in different mammalian species may be very similar, but isozymes within a species may exhibit more extensive variability with respect to homology and catalytic activity. This study documents the structural diversity of a second hepatic FMO from rabbit liver and establishes this class of drug-metabolizing enzymes as a family of related proteins.