Specific incorporation of molybdopterin in xanthine dehydrogenase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

All known molybdoenzymes other than nitrogenase contain the metal in association with molybdopterin or one of its dinucleotide variants. All eukaryotic molybdoproteins have been found to contain only molybdopterin, whereas the majority of bacterial enzymes contain one or another of the dinucleotides of molybdopterin. In contrast, xanthine dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa contains molybdopterin rather than a dinucleotide. To examine whether P. aeruginosa contains any dinucleotide of molybdopterin, cells were subjected to an analytical procedure which converts molybdopterin variants to the highly fluorescent Form A derivatives. The results showed that P. aeruginosa cells do contain molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide. The same procedure showed that rat liver does not contain any of the dinucleotides of molybdopterin.