1H-3-Hydroxy-4-oxoquinaldine 2,4-dioxygenase (MeQDO) was purified from quinaldine-grown Arthrobacter sp. Rü61a. It was enriched 59-fold in a yield of 22%, and its properties were compared with 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline 2,4-dioxygenase (QDO) purified from Pseudomonas putida 33/1. The enzyme-catalyzed conversions were performed in an (18O)O2/(16O)O2 atmosphere. Two oxygen atoms of either (18O)O2 or (16O)O2 were incorporated at C2 and C4 of the respective substrates, indicating that these unusual enzymes, which catalyze the cleavage of two carbon-carbon bonds concomitant with CO formation, indeed are 2,4-dioxygenases. Both enzymes are small monomeric proteins of 32 kDa (MeQDO) and 30 kDa (QDO). The apparent K(m) values of MeQDO for 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinaldine and QDO for 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline were 30 microM and 24 microM, respectively. In both 2,4-dioxygenases, there was no spectral evidence for the presence of a chromophoric cofactor. EPR analyses of MeQDO did not reveal any signal that could be assigned to an organic radical species or to a metal, and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry of both enzymes did not show any metal present in stoichiometric amounts. Ethylxanthate, metal-chelating agents (tiron, alpha, alpha'-bipyridyl, 8-hydroxyquinoline, o-phenanthroline, EDTA, diphenylthiocarbazone, diethyldithiocarbamate), reagents that modify sulfhydryl groups (iodoacetamide, N-ethylmaleimide, p-hydroxymercuribenzoate), and reducing agents (sodium dithionite, dithiothreitol, mercaptoethanol) either did not affect 2,4-dioxygenolytic activities at all or inhibited at high concentrations only. With respect to the supposed lack of any cofactor and with respect to the inhibitors of dioxygenolytic activities, MeQDO and QDO resemble aci-reductone oxidase (CO-forming) from Klebsiella pneumoniae, which catalyzes 1,3-dioxygenolytic cleavage of 1,2-dihydroxy-3-keto-S-methylthiopentene anion (Wray, J. W. & Abeles, R. H. (1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268, 21466-21469; Wray, J. W. & Abeles, R. H. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270, 3147-3153). 1H-3-Hydroxy-4-oxoquinaldine and 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline were reactive towards molecular oxygen in the presence of the base catalyst potassium-tert.-butoxide in the aprotic solvent N,N-dimethylformamide. Base-catalyzed oxidation, yielding the same products as the enzyme-catalyzed conversions, provides a non-enzymic model reaction for 2,4-dioxygenolytic release of CO from 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinaldine and 1H-3-hydroxy-4-oxoquinoline.