Purification and some properties of sulfite:ferric ion oxidoreductase from Thiobacillus ferrooxidans

Sulfite:ferric ion oxidoreductase in the plasma membrane of Thiobacillus ferrooxidans AP19-3 was purified to an electrophoretically homogeneous state. The enzyme had an apparent molecular weight of 650,000 and was composed of two subunits (M(rs), 61,000 and 59,000) as estimated by sodium sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The Michaelis constants of sulfite:ferric ion oxidoreductase for Fe3+ and sulfite ions were 1.0 and 0.071 mM, respectively. Sulfite:ferric ion oxidoreductase suffered from end product inhibition by 1 mM Fe2+.