The effect of greening of sorghum leaves on the molecular weight of a complex containing 4-hydroxycinnamic Acid hydroxylase activity.

During the greening of leaves of Sorghum bicolor var. Wheatland milo, the activity of 4-hydroxycinnamic (p-coumaric) acid hydroxylase in pH 6 buffered extracts was shifted from a relatively low to a high molecular weight fraction. Differences between these forms found in etiolated and green leaves were based on differential centrifugation, ammonium sulfate precipitation, and on elution patterns from Agarose A-15m. Both molecular weight forms were precipitated by protamine sulfate at pH 6, and approximately 40 to 80% of the activity of each form was associated with a 500 to 37,000g pellet when tissues were ground at pH 8 in media of either high or low osmotic concentration. Although no fraction with hydroxylase activity was ever found without any chlorogenic acid oxidase activity, the two activities frequently varied independently, and could be partially separated from each other, using the above techniques. Comparisons were made with the very small molecular weight form of 4-hydroxycinnamic acid hydroxylase characteristic of tissues of first internodes. The significance of these results in terms of possible multienzyme complexes capable of converting phenylalanine and tyrosine to cinnamic acid derivatives is discussed.