Structure/function of oxygen-regulated isoforms in cytochrome c oxidase

Eukaryotic cytochrome c oxidases are complex oligomeric membrane proteins composed of subunit polypeptides encoded by both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. While the mitochondrially encoded subunits are encoded by unique genes, some of the nuclear-encoded subunits are encoded by multigene families. The isoforms produced by these multigene families are tissue-specific and/or developmentally regulated in mammals and environmentally regulated in lower eukaryotes. Isoforms for one of the subunits, V, in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and one of the subunits, VII, in the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum are regulated differentially by oxygen concentration. Extensive studies with the yeast subunit V isoforms have revealed that the genes for these proteins are switched on or off at very low oxygen concentrations (0.5-1 micromol l-1 O2) and that they affect the catalytic properties of holocytochrome c oxidase differentially. By altering an internal step in electron transfer between heme a and the binuclear reaction center (composed of heme a3 and CuB), the 'hypoxic' isoform, Vb, enhances the catalytic constant three- to fourfold relative to the 'aerobic' isoform, Va. Modeling studies suggest that this occurs by an interaction between transmembrane helix VII of subunit I and the transmembrane helix in subunit V. The inverse regulation of these two isoforms allows cells to assemble different types of holoenzyme isoenzymes in response to oxygen concentration. Oxygen also regulates the level of transcription of the genes for the other nuclear-coded subunits of yeast cytochrome c oxidase and affects the level of two of the mitochondrially encoded subunits (I and II) post-transcriptionally. Thus, the level of cytochrome c oxidase activity that is produced at different oxygen tensions in yeast is determined in part by the number of holoenzyme molecules that are assembled and in part by the oxygen-regulated isoforms of subunit V. The possibility that this type of control exists in other organisms is considered.