Blue copper proteins family members

Various spectroscopic methods have been used to probe the nature of the copper centers in the members of the blue copper oxidase family of proteins (e.g. see ref. 13). Prior to the X-ray determination of the structure of ascorbate oxidase in 1989, similarities in the EPR and UV-vis absorption spectra for the blue multi-copper oxidases including laccase and ceruloplasmin had been observed [14] and a number of general conclusions made for the copper centers in ceruloplasmin as shown in Table 1 [13,15]. It was known that six copper atoms were nondialyzable and not available to chelation directly by dithiocarbamate and these coppers were assumed to be tightly bound and/or buried in the protein. Two of the coppers have absorbance maxima around 610 nm and these were interpreted as blue type I coppers with cysteine and histidine ligands, and responsible for the pronounced color of the protein. However, they are not equivalent and one of them, thought to be involved in enzymatic activity, is reduced and reoxidized at a faster rate than the second (e.g. see ref. 16). There was general concurrence that there are two type HI... 

This complex catalyzes the reaction through the Q cycle (Section 18.3.4). In the first half of the Q cycle, plastoquinol is oxidized to plastoquinone, one electron at a time. The electrons from plastoquinol flow through the Fe-S protein to convert oxidized plastocyanin into its reduced form. Plastocyanin is a small, soluble protein with a single copper ion bound by a cysteine residue, two histidine residues, and a methionine residue in a distorted tetrahedral arrangement (Figure 19.17). This geometry facilitates the interconversion between the Cu2+ and the Cu+ states and sets the reduction potential at an appropriate value relative to that of plastoquinol. Plastocyanin is intensely blue in color in its oxidized form, marking it as a member of the "blue copper protein," or type I copper protein family. 

Rusticyanin (Rc), a member of blue copper proteins (BCP) which are relatively small, soluble electron-transfer proteins. Rc possesses a -barrel structure and is arranged in a so-caUed Greek key topology. It shows the highest redox potential (680 mV) of the BCP family, and is particularly efficient in stabilizing the copper (I) ion [F. Nunzi et al., Biochem. Biophys. Res. Com-mun. 1994, 203, 1655 L. A. Alcaraz et al.. Protein Sci. 2005, 14,1710]. 

Close inspection of currently available sequences of proteins carrying BCB domains clearly indicated that they can be classified into four major classes, which are described below. This classification is based on their ability to bind copper and the specific features of their domain organization. Members of the first three classes harbor single or multiple type 1 blue copper-binding sites, while members of the fourth class do not appear to bind copper. Domain organizations of the precursors of aU currently known protein families that contain a BCB domain are shown in Fig. 1. 

The blue multicopper oxidases constitute a heterogeneous family of enzymes from different sources (7). In addition to the well characterized members of this family, ascorbate oxidase (45,46), laccase (47,48), and ceruloplasmin (49,50), all from higher organisms, two other proteins have attracted much recent interest FetSp, which is involved in iron uptake in yeast (51), and CueO, which is required for copper homeostasis in Escherichia coli (52). The characteristic reactivity of these enzymes is the one-electron oxidation of four substrate equivalents coupled to the four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water (1). These processes occur at a catalytic unit constituted by four copper atoms classified according to their spectroscopic properties in... 

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