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The electron spin−lattice relaxation for the 3Fe-4S (S-3) center in succinate:ubiquinone reductase has been examined using both inversion recovery and “picket-fence” pulse sequences at a temperature range of 4−8 K. The latter pulse sequence is used to eliminate the interference of spectral diffusion in frozen solids. An abnormally fast relaxation was observed for the S-3 center. We attribute this rapid relaxation to a magnetic dipolar interaction between the S-3 center and a nearby paramagnetic b-heme (cytochrome b). A model has been developed to treat the interaction between two paramagnetic redox centers in a rigid lattice at a fixed distance apart but with random orientations in a magnetic field. Both the contribution to the spin−lattice relaxation rate from the dipolar interaction (k_(1θ)), which is anisotropic, and the intrinsic electron spin relaxation, which is scalar (k_(1scalar)), have been deduced. We find that the contribution of exchange interaction to the anisotropic part of the relaxation rate (k1θ) is very small. Accordingly, we conclude that k_(1scalar) is dominated by the intrinsic electron spin−lattice relaxation. From k_(1θ), a lower limit (r > 10 A) has been deduced for the distance between the S-3 center and the b-heme.

A small polypeptide subunit of the NADH:ubiquinone reductase (complex I) from Neurospora crassa has been identified by photoaffinity labeling to participate in the binding of ubiquinone [Heinrich, H., & Werner, S. (1992) Biochemistry (preceding paper in this issue)]. This polypeptide is further characterized by its primary structure and by an assessment of its localization within complex I. A lambda gt11 cDNA expression library was screened using a specific antibody directed against this individual subunit of complex I. Two groups of clones, coding for polypeptide subunits of the appropriate apparent molecular weight, were isolated. One group was shown to contain the relevant recombinants. The derived amino acid sequence for the 9.5-kDa ubiquinone-binding polypeptide shows a similarity with a putative ubiquinol-binding subunit (also a 9.5-kDa polypeptide) from complex III of bovine heart [Usui, S., Yu, L., & Tu, C.-A. (1990) Biochemistry 29, 4618-4626]. The polypeptide has a hydrophobic stretch of a sufficient length to span the membrane. It resists against extraction with NaBr or Na2CO3, and therefore probably is buried in the so-called hydrophobic membrane portion of complex I. This nuclearly-encoded subunit lacks a typical cleavable presequence and is imported into isolated mitochondria by a membrane potential-dependent process.

In cattle, 7 of the 30 or more subunits of the respiratory enzyme NADH:ubiquinone reductase (complex I) are encoded in mitochondrial DNA, and potential genes (open reading frames, orfs) for related proteins are found in the chloroplast genomes of Marchantia polymorpha and Nicotiana tabacum. Homologues of the nuclear-coded 49- and 23-kDa subunits are also coded in chloroplast DNA, and these orfs are clustered with four of the homologues of the mammalian mitochondrial genes. These findings have been taken to indicate that chloroplasts contain a relative of complex I. The present work provides further support. The 30-kDa subunit of the bovine enzyme is a component of the iron-sulfur protein fraction. Partial protein sequences have been determined, and synthetic oligonucleotide mixtures based on them have been employed as hybridization probes to identify cognate cDNA clones from a bovine library. Their sequences encode the mitochondrial import precursor of the 30-kDa subunit. The mature protein of 228 amino acids contains a segment of 57 amino acids which is closely related to parts of proteins encoded in orfs 169 and 158 in the chloroplast genomes of M. polymorpha and N. tabacum. Moreover, the chloroplast orfs are found near homologues of the mammalian mitochondrial genes for subunit ND3. Therefore, the plant chloroplast genomes have at least two separate clusters of potential genes encoding homologues of subunits of mitochondrial complex I. The bovine 30-kDa subunit has no extensive sequences of hydrophobic amino acids that could be folded into membrane-spanning alpha-helices, and although it contains two cysteine residues, there is no clear evidence in the sequence that it is an iron-sulfur protein.