Purified liver microsomal cytochrome P450IA2 or P450IIB4 was co-reconstituted with cytochrome b5 or NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase in phosphatidylcholine-phosphatidylethanolamine-phosphatidylserine vesicles at a lipid to P450 weight ratio of 2 by cholate dialysis procedures. The proteoliposomes catalyzed drug oxidation. Rotational diffusion of cytochrome P450 was measured by observing the decay of absorption anisotropy, r(t), after photolysis of the heme.CO complex. Analysis of r(t) was based on a "rotation-about-membrane normal" model. The absorption anisotropy decayed within 1 ms to a time-independent value, r3. Different rotational mobility for the two cytochrome P450s was observed. Though 20% of cytochrome P450IA2 was immobile, all cytochrome P450IIB4 molecules were rotating. The rotational relaxation time, phi, of the mobile population was 237 microseconds for cytochrome P450IA2 and 160 microseconds for cytochrome P450IIB4. The two cytochrome P450s have shown very different interactions with cytochrome b5 and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase. By the presence of the redox partner, the mobile population of cytochrome P450IA2 was increased significantly from 80% to 96% (plus cytochrome b5) and to 89% (plus NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase) due to dissociation of P450 oligomers. On the other hand, the mobility of cytochrome P450IIB4 was not considerably affected by the presence of cytochrome b5 or NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase as judged by little difference in phi and r3, keeping the mobile population of 100%. These results imply that cytochrome P450IA2 forms a transient association with cytochrome b5 and NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)