The Methylamine Dehydrogenase Electron Transfer Chain

The Methylamine Dehydrogenase Electron Transfer Chain C. Dennison, G. W. Canters, S. de Vries, E. Vijgenboom, and R. J. van Spanning... 

The Methylamine Dehydrogenase Electron Transfer Chain C. Dennison, G. W. Canters,... 

Amicyanin is found in methylotrophic bacteria that can use methylated amines as an energy source. The inactivation of the amicyanin gene in Paracoccus denitrificans results in complete loss of its ability to grow on methylamine, a direct indication that amicyanin is a key component of the methylamine driven electron-transfer chain. Amicyanin accepts an electron from methylamine dehydrogenase and transfers it to a c-type cytochrome (see Section 5.4.5). Currently, more than a dozen amicyanin and pseudoazurin sequences are available. 

Two amicyanins from the methylotropic bacteria Pseudomonas AMI and T. versutus have been a recent focus of attention (42, 43). Their function is to mediate electron transfer between bacterial cytochrome c and methylamine dehydrogenase in a relatively short electron transport chain. 

Amicyanins function as electron carriers in the respiratory chains of some me-thylotrophic bacteria, e.g., Thiobacillus versutus [92]. They transfer single electrons from methylamine dehydrogenase to a cytochrome c [78] which then transfers the electron to cytochrome c oxidase. Amicyanin from Pseudomonas denitrificans has a molecular mass of 11.6 kD and contains 106 amino acid residues. Amicyanin contains one /J-sheet more than the eight of plastocyanin and pseudoazurin, the result of several additional amino acids at its N-terminus [78] (Fig. 15). Like pseudoazurin, amicyanin is found exclusively in bacteria. 

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