Phenylhydrazine as probe for cofactor identification in amine oxidoreductases. Evidence for PQQ as the cofactor in methylamine dehydrogenase.

Homogeneous methylamine dehydrogenase (primary-amine:(acceptor) oxidoreductase (deaminating), EC 1.4.99.3, MADH) from the bacterium Thiobacillus versutus was treated with the inhibitor phenylhydrazine (PH). Derivatization of the cofactor in MADH took place in a fast reaction to give compound I. A different product, compound II, was formed in a slow reaction at high O2 concentrations. The compounds I and II could be removed from the protein by proteolysis with pronase and purified to homogeneity. Products showing identical absorption spectra and chromatographic behaviour were isolated from the reaction mixture after incubating pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) with PH. Upon dissolving in dimethyl sulphoxide, both the enzyme-derived as well as the model-system-derived compounds I and II were nearly quantitatively transformed into PQQ. The conclusion is, therefore, that MADH from T. versutus contains covalently bound PQQ, removable from the protein with pronase, and not a structural analogue of this cofactor without the carboxylic acid groups, as was recently proposed for MADH from Bacterium W3A1 [(1986) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 141, 562-568]. The properties of compounds I and II suggest that they are the 'azo adduct' and the 'hydrazone adduct' of PH and PQQ at the C(5)-position, respectively. The finding that the reaction of a hydrazine with PQQ can lead to two different products, in enzymes as well as in a model system, has important implications for the interpretation of recent comparative studies aimed at detection of PQQ in amine oxidoreductases with Raman spectroscopy.