Isolation and characterization of anaerobic ethylbenzene dehydrogenase, a novel Mo-Fe-S enzyme

The first step in anaerobic ethylbenzene mineralization in denitrifying Azoarcus sp. strain EB1 is the oxidation of ethylbenzene to (S)-(-)-1-phenylethanol. Ethylbenzene dehydrogenase, which catalyzes this reaction, is a unique enzyme in that it mediates the stereoselective hydroxylation of an aromatic hydrocarbon in the absence of molecular oxygen. We purified ethylbenzene dehydrogenase to apparent homogeneity and showed that the enzyme is a heterotrimer (αβγ) with subunit masses of 100 kDa (α), 35 kDa (β), and 25 kDa (γ). Purified ethylbenzene dehydrogenase contains approximately 0.5 mol of molybdenum, 16 mol of iron, and 15 mol of acid-labile sulfur per mol of holoenzyme, as well as a molydopterin cofactor. In addition to ethylbenzene, purified ethylbenzene dehydrogenase was found to oxidize 4-fluoro-ethylbenzene and the non-aromatic hydrocarbons 3-methyl-2-pentene and ethylidenecyclohexane. Sequencing of the encoding genes revealed that ebdA encodes the α subunit, a 974-amino-acid polypeptide containing a molybdopterin-binding domain. The ebdB gene encodes the β subunit, a 352-amino-acid polypeptide with several 4Fe-4S binding domains. The ebdC gene encodes the γ subunit, a 214-amino-acid polypeptide that is a potential membrane anchor subunit. Sequence analysis and biochemical data suggest that ethylbenzene dehydrogenase is a novel member of the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family of molybdopterin-containing enzymes.