A
The enzyme catalysing the reduction of maleylacetate to 3-oxoadipate was purified 150-fold from Trichosporon cutaneum, induced for aromatic metabolisms by growth with resorcinol as a major carbon source. The enzyme separated upon electrofocusing into three species with PI values 4.6, 5.1 and 5.6. They had similar catalytic properties and the same molecular weight.
Maleylacetate reductase (EC 1.3.1.32) plays a major role in the degradation of chloroaromatic compounds by channeling maleylacetate and some of its substituted derivatives into the 3-oxoadipate pathway. The enzyme was purified to apparent homogeneity from an extract of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetate (2,4-D)-grown cells of Alcaligenes eutrophus JMP134. Maleylacetate reductase appears to be a dimer of two identical subunits of 35 kDa. The pI was determined to be at pH 5.4. There was no indication of a flavin prosthetic group. The enzyme was inactivated by p-chloromercuribenzoate but not by EDTA, 1,10-phenanthroline, or dithiothreitol. Maleylacetate and 2-chloromaleylacetate were converted with similar efficiencies (with NADH as cosubstrate, Km = 31 microM for each substrate and kcat = 8,785 and 7,280/min, respectively). NADH was preferred to NADPH as the cosubstrate. Upon reduction of 2-chloramaleylacetate by the purified enzyme, chloride was liberated and the resulting maleylacetate was further reduced by a second NADH. These results and the kinetic parameters suggest that the maleylacetate reductase is sufficient to channel the 2,4-D degradation intermediate 2-chloromaleylacetate into the 3-oxoadipate pathway. In a data base search the NH2-terminal sequence of maleylacetate reductase was found to be most similar to that of TfdF, a pJP4-encoded protein of as-yet-unknown function in 2,4-D degradation.