Abstract

The technique of electron paramagnetic resonnance spectrometry has been applied to the study of plant microsomal electron-transport components. Only tulip-bulb microsomes were found to give strong enough signals to allow detailed study. At 77 K in the oxidised state, signals were observed at g values of 2.40, 2.25 and 1.93, characteristic of cytochrome P-450 in the low-spin state, and also at g = 4.27, attributable to ferric iron in a rhombic environment. The signals at g = 2.40, 2.25 and 1.93 disappeared upon reduction with sodium dithionite. At 10 K in the oxidised state, signals at g = 8.3 and 3.3 appeared, and these were attributed to high-spin cytochrome P-450. At this temperature a further signal at g = 6, due to cytochrome P-420, was seen in aged tulip-bulb microsomes. Redox titration of both high-spin and low-spin cytochrome P-450 gave the same apparent midpoint potential of -315 +/- mV at pH 6.8 and 25 degrees C. The significance of this value is discussed. Addition of "type I" or "type II" ligands to oxidized cytochrome P-450 caused an increase and a decrease, respectively, in the ratio of the high-spin to the low-spin form. A second effect of aniline, a type II ligand of cytochrome P-450, was to remove the g = 6 signal, suggesting that it also interacts with cytochrome P-420. No iron-sulphur proteins similar to those found in some other cytochrome P-450 electron-transport chains could be detected in any of the microsomes analysed.