Gene cluster of Rhodothermus marinus high-potential iron-sulfur Protein: oxygen oxidoreductase, a caa(3)-type oxidase belonging to the superfamily of heme-copper oxidases.

ABSTRACT: The respiratory chain of the thermohalophilic bacterium Rhodothermus marinus contains an oxygen reductase, which uses HiPIP (high potential iron-sulfur protein) as an electron donor. The structural genes encoding the four subunits of this HiPIP:oxygen oxidoreductase were cloned and sequenced. The genes for subunits II, I, III, and IV (named rcoxA to rcoxD) are found in this order and seemed to be organized in an operon of at least five genes with a terminator structure a few nucleotides downstream of rcoxD. Examination of the amino acid sequence of the Rcox subunits shows that the subunits of the R. marinus enzyme have homology to the corresponding subunits of oxidases belonging to the superfamily of heme-copper oxidases. RcoxB has the conserved histidines involved in binding the binuclear

SUBMITTER: Santana M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC94926 | biostudies-literature | 2001 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature