Clostridium Tetanomorphum (Bilatriene/Uroporphyrin-Related/Enzymatic Formation/Purification/Characterization) PHILLIP J
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Proc. NatL Acad. Sci. USA Vol. 80, pp. 3943-3947, July 1983 Biochemistry Bactobilin: Blue bile pigment isolated from Clostridium tetanomorphum (bilatriene/uroporphyrin-related/enzymatic formation/purification/characterization) PHILLIP J. BRUMM*t, JOSEF FRIED*t, AND HERBERT C. FRIEDMANN*§ Departments of *Biochemistry and tChemistry, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637 Contributed byJosef Fried, March 31, 1983 ABSTRACT A blue bile pigment, possessing four acetic and used were reagent grade or better. Silica gel for flash chro- four propionic acid side chains has been isolated from extracts of matography and a flash chromatography column, 3.4-cm di- the anaerobic microorganism Clostridium tetanomorphum and in ameter, were obtained from J. T. Baker. Whatman high-per- smaller amounts from Propionibacterium shermanii. The com- formance silica thin-layer chromatography plates with a pre- pound could be prepared in larger amounts by incubation of C. adsorbent spotting area (type LHP-K, 10 x 20 cm) and E. Merck tetanomorphum enzyme extracts with added 8-aminolevulinic acid. precoated cellulose thin-layer chromatography plates were ob- The ultraviolet-visible, infrared, and proton magnetic resonance tained from Anspec (Ann Arbor, MI). For fluorescence detec- spectra of the pigment indicate a chromophore of the biliverdin tion, a lamp emitting at 365 nm was used. C. tetanomorphum type. Field-desorption mass spectrometry of the purified methyl cells (ATCC 15920) were grown on a medium containing ester showed a strong molecular ion at m/e = 962. This corre- yeast sponds to the molecular weight expected for the octamethyl ester extract and monosodium glutamate (based on medium 163, of a bilatriene type of bile pigment structurally derived from uro- American Type Culture Collection) as described (18) and were porphyrin 1m or I. Of the five possible structures, two could be collected by centrifugation. Uroporphyrin and C-methylated eliminated by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The name mono-, di-, and trimethylisobacteriochlorins (Factors I, II, and bactobilin is proposed for this previously unreported bile pigment. III) were isolated as their octamethyl esters by standard meth- ods (19, 20). Sirohydrochlorin (Factor II) octamethyl ester was The open-chain tetrapyrrole compounds known as bile pig- given by A. I. Scott (College Station, TX); dimethyl- and ments are widely distributed. They are found free or bound to trimethylisobacteriochlorin dilactone octamethyl esters were protein in mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, fish, mol- given by V. Koppenhagen (Braunschweig-Stockheim, Federal luscs, and insects and in algae and higher plants (for reviews, Republic of Germany). see refs. 1-9). As side chains or 1&carbon ring substituents, all Enzyme Preparation. An acetone powder was prepared from bile pigments described thus far have four methyl groups, two the bacteria as follows. Immediately after centrifugation, 170- propionic acid groups, and two vinyl groups, one or both of which 180 g of packed cells (obtained from 56 liters of growth me- can be isomerized to ethylidene (4, 10, 11) or reduced to ethyl dium) were uniformly suspended in 170-180 ml of ice-cold 2% (6, 10, 11). These substituents are arranged in the sequence 2-mercaptoethanol with the help of a nonaerating stirrer (Kraft found in protoporphyrin IX; in fact, all these bile pigments are Apparatus, distributed by Glas-Col Apparatus, Terre Haute, formed from protoheme (8, 12-14), whose oxidative breakdown IN). The cold suspension was added slowly with stirring to 1.7- to biliverdin is catalyzed by the enzyme heme oxygenase (15- 1.8 liters of acetone at -100C; the stirring was continued for 17). Bile pigments thus far have not been detected in prokary- 5 min at about 0C. The material, collected by suction filtration, otes. The present paper reports the isolation and in vitro for- was resuspended uniformly in 1.7-1.8 liters of cold acetone with mation of a bile pigment from the bacterium Clostridium nonaerating stirring, collected again by filtration, and trans- tetanomorphum. This anaerobic organism makes uroporphyrin- ferred to a round-bottom flask. The remaining acetone was re- ogen, the precursor of vitamin B-12, but not heme, protopor- moved in vacuo at room temperature with the aid of a rotary phyrinogen, or coproporphyrinogen. The isolated bile pigment evaporator. The powder could be stored over a desiccant at is of interest not only because of its detection in a prokaryote, -20'C for at least 3 months without significant activity loss. but also because its 13-carbon ring substituents, four acetic acid The average yield was 50 g (i.e., about 29% of the packed cell and four propionic acid groups, correspond to those of a uro- weight). For enzyme extraction, 30 g of powder was stirred for porphyrin and not of protoporphyrin. 10 min at room temperature without aeration in 300 ml of 100 mM Tris'HCI buffer, pH 8.0/0.2% 2-mercaptoethanol. The suspension was centrifuged for 20 min at 48,000 X g. MATERIALS AND METHODS Preparation of Bacterial Bile Pigment. To the clear super- Supplies. -Aminolevulinic acid was obtained from Sigma; natant solution, 60 mg of 8-aminolevulinic acid dissolved in 10 biliverdin IXa dimethyl ester and the fully esterified methyl ml of 100 mM Tris (pH 8.0) was added with gentle swirling. esters of uroporphyrin III, coproporphyrin III, protoporphyrin The mixture was incubated 18 hr in the dark at 370C. Precip- IX, and heptacarboxylporphyrin I, were from Porphyrin Prod- itated protein was removed by centrifugation for 20 min at 48,000 ucts (Logan, UT). The n-hexane used for flash chromatography X g. The uroporphyrins and related anionic substances in the was "95 + %" (Aldrich), whereas the n-hexane for thin-layer supernatant solution were esterified after retention on an anion chromatography was 99 mol % pure (Fisher). Other chemicals exchanger by a modification of the method of Bergmann et al. The publication costs of this article were defrayed in part by page charge t Present address: Moffett Tech. Ctr., Corn Products, P.O. Box 345, payment. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertise- Summitt-Argo, IL 60501. ment" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. §1734 solely to indicate this fact. § To whom reprint requests should be addressed. 3943 Downloaded by guest on September 27, 2021 3944 Biochemistry: Brumm et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 80 (1983) (19): about 5 g of DEAE-Sephadex A-25 that had been equil- Table 1. Ultraviolet-visible and infrared absorption maxima ibrated with 100 mM potassium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4) was in chloroform added in aqueous suspension with slight swirling. The ion ex- Ratio Ratio changer was collected by filtration and washed three times with UV-Vis 380/ IR 1,730/ 250 ml of water and three times with 250 ml of methanol. To Ama,) nm 650 Pmax, cm- 1,700 esterify the substances retained on this anhydrous DEAE- 200 Biliverdin IXa 1,732 (ester C=O) Sephadex, ml of methanol/sulfuric acid, 90:10 (vol/vol), dimethyl 376, 642-670 3.76 1,695 (amide C=O) 0.76 was added. The vessel was tightly capped. After 18 hr at 370C, ester the supernatant solution was collected by filtration, and the Bactobilin 1,735 (ester C=O) DEAE-Sephadex was washed with a small volume of chloro- octamethyl 369,644 3.56 1,705 (amide C=O) 1.27 form. The esters were extracted into chloroform by agitating ester the filtrate with about 200 ml each of water and of chloroform. The reddish chloroform layer was collected and washed twice Vis, visible. with 200 ml of 0.1 M ammonia. In this process yellow material was removed. Three washes with 200 ml of water followed. The RESULTS chloroform was removed in vacuo at room temperature, and the The present work resulted from studies of intermediates in vi- residue was dissolved in 10 ml of chloroform. The material was tamin B-12 biosynthesis. After incubation of enzyme extracts subjected to flash chromatography on 180 ml of silica gel that of C. tetanomorphum with 6-aminolevulinic acid at pH 8 in the had been equilibrated with a mixture of n-hexane/2-propanol/ presence of 2-mercaptoethanol and workup by conventional methanol, 5:2:1 (vol/vol) (refs. 19, 21, 22; and the unpublished methods (19), it was found that when the reaction products in method of A. I. Scott was incorrectly quoted in ref. 21 re- but the form of their methyl esters were submitted to thin-layer peated correctly in refs. 19 Pressure was and 22). applied with chromatography on silica plates in a widely used solvent (24), nitrogen or argon. was The column treated with 400 ml of this a certain amount of pigmented material remained near the or- solvent, followed by 200 ml of n-hexane/2-propanol, 1:1.5 (vol/ igin. Thin-layer chromatography of this material in chloroform vol). The eluates were combined, and the solvent was removed containing from 2% to 3% methanol showed small amounts of in vacuo. a striking hitherto unreported nonfluorescent blue material. The solid residue was dissolved in 20 ml of chloroform and The first indication that this substance is a bile pigment and not to area applied the preadsorbent spotting of 10 Whatman LHP- a cyclic tetrapyrrole was provided by the fact that it gave a pos- K were silica plates, which then developed in dim light in chlo- itive Gmelin reaction (multiple, gradually developing colors upon roform/methanol, 100:3 (vol/vol). The solvent troughs were careful addition of concentrated nitric acid) (described by Tie- lined with saturation pads. The main component was rapidly demann and Gmelin in 1826; for recent references see refs. 2, moving uroporphyrin octamethyl ester. The blue bands (Rf 25, and 26).