The purification and properties of the soluble cytochromes c of the obligate methylotroph Methylophilus methylotrophus.

The obligate methylotroph Methylophilus methylotrophus contains three distinct soluble cytochromes c. The major cytochromes, cytochrome cH (about 50% of the total) and cytochrome cL (about 42%), were similar in most respects to the cytochromes cH and cL of the facultative methylotroph Pseudomonas AM1 [O'Keeffe & Anthony (1980) Biochem. J. 192, 411-419]. Cytochrome cH had a high isoelectric point, a midpoint redox potential at pH 7.0 of 373 mV and a low molecular weight (8500). The cytochrome cL had a low isoelectric point, a midpoint potential of 310 mV and a molecular weight of 21,000. The third cytochrome, cytochrome cLM, was clearly distinct from cytochromes cH and cL. Like the cytochrome cL of Pseudomonas AM1, the cytochrome cL of M. methylotrophus had the lowest midpoint potential, it reacted most rapidly with methanol dehydrogenase and it combined to the greatest extent with CO. Cytochromes cH and L of M. methylotrophus differed from those from Pseudomonas AM1 in having unusually high midpoint redox potentials for non-photosynthetic bacteria and in exhibiting a split alpha-band at low temperatures.