0 and were applied to a Q-Sepharose column. The proteins were eluted with 15 column volumes of buffer containing 0.1% DDM, 10 mM Tris-HCl at pH 7.0, and an increasing concentration of NaCl (linear selleck chemicals llc gradient of 0-300 mM; Additional file 1). The peak fractions were applied to a hydroxyapatite column for separation. The proteins were eluted with 3 column volumes of buffer containing 0.1% DDM and an increasing concentration of NaPi at pH7.0 (stepwise gradient of 20, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, and 400 mM; Additional file 2). Enzyme activities Cytochrome oxidase activity was assayed at 60°C by measuring oxidation of a yeast cytochrome c (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis MO), which had been reduced with sodium dithionite,

in a final volume 800 μL containing a suitable amount of enzyme, 20

mM NaPi at pH 7.0, and 10 μM yeast cytochrome c. The oxidation of reduced cytochrome c was followed by measuring the decrease in absorbance at 549 nm, and activity was calculated using a millimolar absorption coefficient of 21.2 mM-1 cm-1 [24]. N, N, N ‘, N ‘-Tetramethyl- p -phenylenediamine (TMPD) oxidase activity was assayed by measuring the increase in absorbance at 562 nm using a mixture of 25 mM TMPD, 0.1 M NaCl, and 50 mM NaPi at pH 6.5, and calculated using a millimolar absorption coefficient of 10.5 mM-1 check details cm-1. To avoid the auto-oxidation of TMPD, the assay was CB-5083 performed at 40°C. Menaquinol oxidase activity was assayed at 40°C by measuring the oxidation rate of menaquinol-1, which had been reduced with sodium dithionite, in a final volume of 700 μL containing a suitable amount of enzyme, 20 mM NaPi

at pH 7.0, 0.1% (w/v) DDM, 1 mM EDTA, and 0.2 mM menaquinol-1. The oxidation of reduced menaquinone was followed by measuring the increase in absorbance at 270.7 nm, and the activity was calculated using a millimolar absorption coefficient of 8.13 mM-1 cm-1. Electrophoretic analyses Blue-native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (BN-PAGE) was performed according to the method of Schägger et al. [25]. Nondenaturating electrophoresis was started at 100 V until the sample was within the stacking gel and continued with the voltage and current limited to 350 V and 15 mA, respectively. For two-dimensional Farnesyltransferase analysis, a slice of the BN-PAGE gel was excised and soaked in 1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and 1% mercaptoethanol buffer for 1 h and then embedded in a separating gel containing 15% acrylamide. Two-dimensional analysis was performed at room temperature with the current limited to 20 mA. SDS-PAGE was performed according to the method of Laemmli [26]. The gel was stained for protein with CBB and for heme with o -toluidine in the presence of H2O2. Gels were immersed in a solution containing 1% (w/v) o-tolidine, 80% (v/v) CH3OH and 10% (v/v) CH3COOH for 10 min, and then H2O2 was added at final concentration of 1% (v/v).