Unlike superoxide dismutases (SODs), superoxide reductases (SORs) eliminate superoxide anion (O2 o-) not through its dismutation, but via reduction to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of an electron donor. The microaerobic protist Giardia intestinalis, responsible for a common intestinal disease in humans, though lacking SOD and other canonical reactive oxygen species-detoxifying systems, is among the very few eukaryotes encoding a SOR yet identified. In this study, the recombinant SOR from Giardia (SORGi) was purified and characterized by pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow spectrophotometry. The protein, isolated in the reduced state, after oxidation by superoxide or hexachloroiridate(IV), yields a resting species (Tfinal) with Fe3+ ligated to glutamate or hydroxide depending on pH (apparent pKa=8.7). Although showing negligible SOD activity, reduced SORGi reacts with O2 o- with a pH-independent second-order rate constant k1=1.0×109 M-1 s-1 and yields the ferric-(hydro)peroxo intermediate T1; this in turn rapidly decays to the Tfinal state with pH-dependent rates, without populating other detectable intermediates. Immunoblotting assays show that SORGi is expressed in the disease-causing trophozoite of Giardia. We propose that the superoxide-scavenging activity of SOR in Giardia may promote the survival of this air-sensitive parasite in the fairly aerobic proximal human small intestine during infection.
The superoxide reductase from the early diverging eukaryote Giardia intestinalis
2011
Abstract
Unlike superoxide dismutases (SODs), superoxide reductases (SORs) eliminate superoxide anion (O2 o-) not through its dismutation, but via reduction to hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the presence of an electron donor. The microaerobic protist Giardia intestinalis, responsible for a common intestinal disease in humans, though lacking SOD and other canonical reactive oxygen species-detoxifying systems, is among the very few eukaryotes encoding a SOR yet identified. In this study, the recombinant SOR from Giardia (SORGi) was purified and characterized by pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow spectrophotometry. The protein, isolated in the reduced state, after oxidation by superoxide or hexachloroiridate(IV), yields a resting species (Tfinal) with Fe3+ ligated to glutamate or hydroxide depending on pH (apparent pKa=8.7). Although showing negligible SOD activity, reduced SORGi reacts with O2 o- with a pH-independent second-order rate constant k1=1.0×109 M-1 s-1 and yields the ferric-(hydro)peroxo intermediate T1; this in turn rapidly decays to the Tfinal state with pH-dependent rates, without populating other detectable intermediates. Immunoblotting assays show that SORGi is expressed in the disease-causing trophozoite of Giardia. We propose that the superoxide-scavenging activity of SOR in Giardia may promote the survival of this air-sensitive parasite in the fairly aerobic proximal human small intestine during infection.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
