Abstract
Cytochromes c2 are the nearest bacterial homologs of mitochondrial cytochrome c. The sequences of the known cytochromes c2 can be placed in two subfamilies based upon insertions and deletions, one subfamily is most like mitochondrial cytochrome c (the small C2s, without significant insertions and deletions), and the other, designated large C2, shares 3- and 8-residue insertions as well as a single-residue deletion. C2s generally function between cytochrome bc1 and cytochrome oxidase in respiration (ca 80 examples known to date) and between cytochrome bc1 and the reaction center in nonsulfur purple bacterial photosynthesis (ca 21 examples). However, members of the large C2 subfamily are almost always involved in photosynthesis (12 of 14 examples). In addition, the gene for the large C2 (cycA) is associated with those for the photosynthetic reaction center (pufBALM). We hypothesize that the insertions in the large C2s, which were already functioning in photosynthesis, allowed them to replace the membrane-bound tetraheme cytochrome, PufC, that otherwise mediates between the small C2 or other redox proteins and photosynthetic reaction centers. Based upon our analysis, we propose that the involvement of C2 in nonsulfur purple bacterial photosynthesis was a metabolic feature subsequent to the evolution of oxygen respiration.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (GM21277) and by a research grant from the Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds of Ghent University (B/06840/01).
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Communicated by Timothy Donohue.
M. Cusanovich: deceased.
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Meyer, T., Van Driessche, G., Ambler, R. et al. Evidence from the structure and function of cytochromes c2 that nonsulfur purple bacterial photosynthesis followed the evolution of oxygen respiration. Arch Microbiol 192, 855–865 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-010-0608-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-010-0608-2