Nb. Birchfield et al., HUMAN PROTOPORPHYRINOGEN OXIDASE - RELATION BETWEEN THE HERBICIDE BINDING-SITE AND THE FLAVIN COFACTOR, Biochemistry, 37(19), 1998, pp. 6905-6910
Protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase (protox) catalyzes the oxidation of prot
oporphyrinogen IX to protoporphyrin IX in the penultimate step of heme
and chlorophyll biosynthesis in animals and plants, Protox is the tar
get of light-dependent peroxidizing herbicides and is inhibited at nan
omolar levels by several chemical classes including tetrahydrophthalim
ides (discussed below) and diphenyl ethers (e.g., acifluorfen) usually
with little selectivity between the mammalian and plant enzymes. The
herbicide binding site is examined here with a photoaffinity radioliga
nd optimized on the basis of structure-activity relationships. A radio
synthetic procedure is described for this new herbicidal probe, 2-fluo
rophenyl)-3,4,5,6-[H-3]tetrahydrophthalimide ([H-3]AzTHP), resulting i
n high specific activity (2.6 TBq/mmol). Human protox expressed in Esc
herichia coli and purified by affinity chromatography is used with [H-
3]AzTHP to characterize the herbicide/substrate binding site. Specific
binding of [H-3]AzTHP to human protox is rapid, completely reversible
in the absence of Light with a K-d Of 93 nM, and competitively inhibi
ted by the 5-propargyloxy analogue and by acifluorfen, which are known
to bind at the substrate (protoporphyrinogen) site. The B-max establi
shes one [H-3]AzTHP binding site per FAD. Diphenylene iodonium, propos
ed to inhibit protox by interaction with the FAD cofactor, inhibits en
zyme activity by 48% at 100 mu M without affecting [H-3]AzTHP binding
in the presence or absence of substrate, suggesting that the herbicide
binding site may not be proximal to FAD, The first step has been take
n in photoaffinity labeling the herbicide/substrate site with [H-3]AzT
HP resulting in apparent covalent derivatization of 13% of the herbici
de binding site.