Biochemical studies of a soxF-encoded monomeric flavoprotein purified from the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum that stimulates in vitro thiosulfate oxidation.

In the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum, three sulfur oxidizing enzyme system (Sox) proteins, SoxAXK, SoxYZ, and SoxB (the core TOMES, thiosulfate oxidizing multi-enzyme system) are essential to in vitro thiosulfate oxidation. We purified monomeric flavoprotein SoxF from this bacterium, which had sulfide dehydrogenase activity. SoxF enhanced the thiosulfate oxidation activity of the purified core TOMES with various cytochromes as electron acceptors to different degrees without any change in the affinity for thiosulfate. The apparent reaction rates with 50 microM- C. tepidum cytochrome c-554 were slightly higher than with horse-heart cytochrome c, and the addition of 0.5 microM- SoxF increased the rate by 92%. The rates with 50 microM- horse-heart cytochrome c and 50 muM- horse-heart cytochrome c plus 0.5 muM- cytochrome c-554 were increased by SoxF by 31% and 120% respectively. We conclude that SoxF mediates electron transfer between the components of core TOMES and externally added cytochromes.