The mitochondrial oxoglutarate carrier protein contains a disulfide bridge between intramembranous cysteines 221 and 224

The oxoglutarate carrier (OGC) purified from bovine heart mitochondria was treated, both in its active and in its SDS-denatured state, with the fluorescent N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide and other SH reagents before and after reduction with dithioerythritol or β-mercaptoethanol. The number of SH groups per OGC polypeptide chain was found to be about 1 for the oxidized carrier and 3 for the reduced carrier. The bovine oxoglutarate carrier contains three cysteines: Cys-184, Cys-221 and Cys-224. Sequencing of BrCN cleavage products of oxoglutarate carrier showed that N-(1-pyrenyl)maleimide binds to only Cys-184 of the oxidized protein and also to Cys-221 and Cys-224 after reduction of the protein. These results show the presence of a disulfide bridge between the latter two cysteines of the purified carrier. The oxidized and the reduced forms of the oxoglutarate carrier exhibited different V(max) but virtually the same K(m) values for oxoglutarate.