PHK from phenol hydroxylase of Pseudomonas sp. OX1. Insight into the role of an accessory protein in bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases

► The presence of the phk gene improves phenol hydroxylase activity of recombinant PH expressed in Escherichia coli. ► Accessory protein PHK is neither involved in the catalytic activity of the phenol hydroxylase complex nor required for the assembly of active hydroxylase. ► A novel PHK–PH(LNO) inactive complex was isolated from E. coli expressing the whole ph gene cluster. ► PHK might be responsible for stimulating iron incorporation into the active site of the apohydroxylase PH(LNO) 2. Bacterial multicomponent monooxygenases (BMMs) are members of a wide family of diiron enzymes that use molecular oxygen to hydroxylate a variety of aromatic compounds. The presence of genes encoding for accessory proteins not involved in catalysis and whose role is still elusive, is a common feature of the gene clusters of several BMMs, including phenol hydroxylases and several soluble methane monooxygenases. In this study we have expressed, purified, and partially characterized the accessory component PHK of the phenol hydroxylase from Pseudomonas sp. OX1, a bacterium able to degrade several aromatic compounds. The phenol hydroxylase (ph) gene cluster was expressed in Escherichia coli/JM109 cells in the absence and in the presence of the phk gene. The presence of the phk gene lead to an increase in the hydroxylase activity of whole recombinant cells with phenol. PHK was assessed for its ability to interact with the active hydroxylase complex. Our results show that PHK is neither involved in the catalytic activity of the phenol hydroxylase complex nor required for the assembly of apo-hydroxylase. Our results suggest instead that this component may be responsible for enhancing iron incorporation into the active site of the apo-hydroxylase.