Lipoxygenases are lipid peroxidizing enzymes, which frequently occur in higher plants and mammals. These enzymes are also expressed in lower multicellular organisms but here they are not widely distributed. In bacteria, lipoxygenases rarely occur and evaluation of the currently available bacterial genomes suggested that <0.5% of all sequenced bacterial species carry putative lipoxygenase genes. We recently rescreened the public bacterial genome databases for lipoxygenase‐like sequences and identified two novel lipoxygenase isoforms (MF‐LOX1 and MF‐LOX2) in the halotolerant Myxococcus fulvus. Both enzymes share a low degree of amino acid conservation with well‐characterized eukaryotic lipoxygenase isoforms but they involve the catalytically essential iron cluster. Here, we cloned the MF‐LOX1 cDNA, expressed the corresponding enzyme as N‐terminal hexa‐his‐tag fusion protein, purified the recombinant enzyme to electrophoretic homogeneity, and characterized it with respect to its protein‐chemical and enzymatic properties. We found that M. fulvus expresses a catalytically active intracellular lipoxygenase that converts arachidonic acid and other polyunsaturated fatty acids enantioselectively to the corresponding n‐9 hydroperoxy derivatives. The enzyme prefers C20‐ and C22‐polyenoic fatty acids but does not exhibit significant membrane oxygenase activity. The possible biological relevance of MF‐LOX1 will be discussed in the context of the suggested concepts of other bacterial lipoxygenases.
