Studies on the Mechanism of NAD-photoreduction by Chromatophores of the Facultative Phototroph, Rhodopseudomonas capsulata

Abstract

The light-driven and the ATP-driven reduction of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) catalyzed by the chromatophore fraction of Rhodopseudomonas capsulata was investigated. Efficient electron donors for the photoreduction of NAD are molecular hydrogen and succinate. In the ATP-dependent reaction system, succinate is a more efficient electron donor than H2. The energydependent NAD-reduction is driven by ATP, but not by pyrophosphate or ADP. Oligomycin stimulates the NAD-photoreductions and completely inhibits the ATP-driven NAD-reductions. Rotenone and piericidin A are inhibitors for both the light-driven and the ATP-driven NAD-reductions. Antimycin A is an inhibitor only for the light-driven reductions. The H2-linked NAD-photoreduction is less sensitive to these inhibitors and to the uncoupler desaspidin than the succinate-linked reduction. Atebrine, carbonyl cyanide-m-chlorophenylhydrazone, 2,4-dinitrophenol and phenazonium methosulfate are inhibitors for the light-driven and the ATP-driven reductions. Some of the compounds used as inhibitors of the NAD-reduction were also investigated with concerns to their inhibitory effects on cyclic photophosphorylation and O2-linked oxidations of reduced NAD, succinate and H2. Based on the results of these inhibitor studies, the relationships between cyclic photophosphorylation, light-induced noncyclic electron transport and energy-dependent NAD-reduction are discussed.