An unusual effect of N-octylamine on the cytochrome b5 spectrum of insect and mammalian microsomes.

The addition of n-octylamine to microsomes prepared from the midgut of tobacco hornworn (Manduca sexta) larvae causes an unusual spectral interaction. The initial optical difference spectrum appears to be the sum of reduced cytochrome b5 and a type II difference spectrum of cytochrome P-450. This initial spectrum is unstable and diminishes in size, with a concurrent shift in peak (424 to 428 nm) and trough (409 and 392 to approx. 400 nm) positions, to yield a stable spectrum identical to the type II spectrum of cytochrome P-450. Thus, in addition to its interaction with cytochrome P-450, n-octylamine causes a reduction of cytochrome b5 which subsequently becomes reoxidized. The causal factor for this unusual spectral interaction occurs in the cytoplasm and appears to be protein-bound. It was also present in similar preparations from the tobacco budworm (Heliothis virescens) but not in those from rat or mouse liver or abdomens from insecticide-resistant or susceptible houseflies (Musca domestica). Microsomes from rat and mouse liver, but not those from housefly abdomens, exhibit similar unusual spectral interactions with n-octylamine when supplemented with the soluble factor from the hornworm.