Bacillus megaterium cytochrome P-450 BM-3 (coded by gene CYP102) is a catalytically self-sufficient mono-oxygenase, with both cytochrome P-450 and NADPH:cytochrome P-450 reductase domains, that catalyses the hydroxylation of fatty acids. The natural ferriprotoporphyrin IX has been removed from the haem domain of cytochrome P-450 BM-3 by treatment with acidified acetone, and it has been shown that, under carefully controlled conditions, haem can be added back to the resultant apoprotein to obtain a fully reconstituted haem domain with spectroscopic, substrate-binding and catalytic properties indistinguishable from those of the native domain. Replacement of the natural haem with ferriprotoporphyrin IX dimethyl ester yields a protein which has a higher affinity for the substrate dodecanoic acid and (in the presence of the reductase domain) the same catalytic rate as the native haem domain. Replacement with ferrimesoporphyrin IX yields a protein with the same affinity for substrate, but a reduced catalytic turnover. These results suggest that the haem moiety has a role in the creation of the binding pocket for substrate, and that modification of the electron density on the haem iron effects the catalytic rate.
Thermodynamic studies of substrate binding and spin transitions in human cytochrome P-450 3A4 expressed in yeast microsomes
