Temperature dependence of methyl-coenzyme M reductase activity and of the formation of the methyl-coenzyme M reductase red2 state induced by coenzyme B.

Methyl-coenzyme M reductase (MCR) catalyses the formation of methane from methyl-coenzyme M (CH(3)-S-CoM) and coenzyme B (HS-CoB) in methanogenic archaea. The enzyme has an alpha(2)beta(2)gamma(2) subunit structure forming two structurally interlinked active sites each with a molecule F(430) as a prosthetic group. The nickel porphinoid must be in the Ni(I) oxidation state for the enzyme to be active. The active enzyme exhibits an axial Ni(I)-based electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) signal and a UV-vis spectrum with an absorption maximum at 385 nm. This state is called the MCR-red1 state. In the presence of coenzyme M (HS-CoM) and coenzyme B the MCR-red1 state is in part converted reversibly into the MCR-red2 state, which shows a rhombic Ni(I)-based EPR signal and a UV-vis spectrum with an absorption maximum at 420 nm. We report here for MCR from Methanothermobacter marburgensis that the MCR-red2 state is also induced by several coenzyme B analogues and that the degree of induction by coenzyme B is temperature-dependent. When the temperature was lowered below 20 degrees C the percentage of MCR in the red2 state decreased and that in the red1 state increased. These changes with temperature were fully reversible. It was found that at most 50% of the enzyme was converted to the MCR-red2 state under all experimental conditions. These findings indicate that in the presence of both coenzyme M and coenzyme B only one of the two active sites of MCR can be in the red2 state (half-of-the-sites reactivity). On the basis of this interpretation a two-stroke engine mechanism for MCR is proposed.