The amino acid modifier phenylglyoxal (PG) gradually inactivated the methyl viologen-coupled nitrate reductase activity of the anoxically grown whole cells of Paracoccus denitrificans. A double log plot of the pseudo-first-order inactivation rate constant versus PG concentration was linear with a mean slope of 1.4 (0.1M sodium phosphate) or 0.87 (0.1M sodium borate). Phenylglyoxalation of cells lowered the limiting velocity (V), while hardly affecting the apparent half-saturation concentration (K(m)) of nitrate. Nitrate afforded no protection against inactivation. The inhibition by PG could be removed by the detergent Triton X-100 or by the lipid-soluble tetraphenylphosphonium countercation, suggesting that PG exerts its effect at the level of nitrate transport. Based on studies with membrane potential- and pH-sensitive fluorescent probes, the inhibition was shown not to be due to changes in the electrochemical gradient of hydrogen ions. Both K(m) and V values for nitrate uptake increased in a hyperbolic fashion in response to exogenously added nitrite. Nitrite promoted a bypass of the inhibition caused by low concentrations of the proton-conducting agent carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone (CCCP), but was almost ineffective in the case of the PG block. These results are rationalized in terms of two nitrate import pathways that are comparably inhibited by PG and differ in their sensitivities to CCCP. A simplified kinetic model for phenylglyoxalation is proposed to account for the observed nonintegral reaction orders.

Department of Biochemistry Faculty of Science Masaryk University Kotlárská 2 CZ 61137 Brno Czech Republic

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