Purification and characterization of two forms of cytochrome b5 from an arachidonic acid-producing fungus, Mortierella hygrophila.

Two forms of cytochrome b5 have been purified from the microsomes of an arachidonic acid-producing fungus, Mortierella hygrophila IFO 5941, after detergent solubilization. They have monomeric molecular masses of about 16 kDa and 19 kDa. Their absorption spectra are similar to those of mammalian cytochrome b5s. Their amino acid compositions show some similarity to those of mammalian cytochrome b5s, but the contents of some amino acids (glycine, alanine, aspartic acid + asparagine, glutamic acid + glutamine, arginine, proline, histidine, leucine and lysine) are unique to the cytochrome b5s of M. hygrophila. Some of their internal peptide sequences also show close homology with those of some mammals (approx. 65 to 67%), while some others show no or little homology. The addition of various acyl-CoAs to NADH-reduced microsomes caused an abrupt shiftdown of the steady state reduction level of cytochrome b5. This indicates the increased utilization of electrons for the desaturation process and may suggest that the cytochrome b5s of this fungus actually take part in its microsomal desaturation system for polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis as electron carriers.