The expression of catechol oxidase activity during the hydroxylation of p-coumaric acid by spinach-beet phenolase.

1. The conditions under which oxygen consumption in excess of that required for the hydroxylation of p-coumaric acid to caffeic acid, catalysed by spinach-beet phenolase, can be suppressed, have been examined. 2. With dimethyltetrahydropteridine as electron donor, oxygen uptake was exactly equivalent to the caffeic acid produced, provided that p-coumaric acid was in excess, but with excess of reductant, oxygen uptake caused by the further oxidation of caffeic acid was also observed. 3. With equal concentrations of ascorbate and p-coumaric acid, equivalent oxygen uptake and caffeic acid production was found only in the first stages of the reaction, whereas with NADH substituted for ascorbate, oxygen uptake was in excess throughout. 4. When ascorbate was used, the period of the reaction over which this equivalence was found was decreased at high reaction rates and not observed at all with aged enzyme preparations; equivalence was restored by adding bovine serum albumin to these aged preparations. 5. Equivalence between oxygen consumption and caffeic acid production was observed with NADH, if small quantities of dimethyltetrahydropteridine were also added. 6. It is concluded that hydroxylation proceeds without the concomitant production of caffeic acid only if the enzyme is stabilized for hydroxylation by p-coumaric acid and the reductant, and is protected from attack by o-quinones.