Copper proteins active site nature

In addition, work by Solomon s group at Stanford University on copper binding active sites has been particularly significant in terms of establishing the power of variable temperature and field studies. The unique spectral and structural features of the copper-protein active sites and their intermediates have been studied in depth based on a wide range of different spectroscopic techniques. This has provided detailed insights into the nature of these sites that... 

Since the oxidative polymerization of phenols is the industrial process used to produce poly(phenyleneoxide)s (Scheme 4), the application of polymer catalysts may well be of interest. Furthermore, enzymic, oxidative polymerization of phenols is an important pathway in biosynthesis. For example, black pigment of animal kingdom "melanin" is the polymeric product of 2,6-dihydroxyindole which is the oxidative product of tyrosine, catalyzed by copper enzyme "tyrosinase". In plants "lignin" is the natural polymer of phenols, such as coniferyl alcohol 2 and sinapyl alcohol 3. Tyrosinase contains four Cu ions in cataly-tically active site which are considered to act cooperatively. These Cu ions are presumed to be surrounded by the non-polar apoprotein, and their reactivities in substitution and redox reactions are controlled by the environmental protein. 

Table I lists isomorphous replacements for various metalloproteins. Consider zinc enzymes, most of which contain the metal ion firmly bound. The diamagnetic, colorless zinc atom contributes very little to those physical properties that can be used to study the enzymes. Thus it has become conventional to replace this metal by a different metal that has the required physical properties (see below) and as far as is possible maintains the same activity. Although this aim may be achieved to a high degree of approximation [e.g., replacement of zinc by cobalt(II)], no such replacement is ever exact. This stresses the extreme degree of biological specificity. The action of an enzyme depends precisely on the exact metal it uses, stressing again the peculiarity of biological action associated with the idiosyncratic nature of active sites. (The entatic state of the metal ion is an essential part of this peculiarity.) Despite this specificity, the replacement method has provided a wealth of information about proteins that could not have been obtained by other methods. Clearly, there will often be a compromise in the choice of replacement. Even isomorphous replacement that should retain structure will not necessarily retain activity at all. However, it has become clear that substitutions can be made for structural studies where the substituted protein is inactive (e.g., in the copper proteins and the iron-sulfur proteins). It is also possible to substitute into metal coenzymes. Many studies have been reported of the...

The deoxy forms of hemocyanins are colorless, as a result of their 3d ° dicopper(I) centers. Although chemical and x-ray absorption spectroscopic studies had shed considerable light on the nature of the deoxy-He dicopper binding site, there now exist two x-ray crystal structures, the first on the the spiny lobster He, Panulirus interruptus [23], and a recent one of the horseshoe crab Limulus II protein [24], The structures exhibit rather different active-site characteristics, and since the former was crystallized at low pH and possesses rather odd copper coordination, the latter Limulus II structure is probably representative. It indicates that the two Cu(I) ions are 4.6 A apart, each found in a trigonal-planar coordination environment with Cu-NMs bond distances of about 2.0 A (Figure 1). Intersubunit 02 binding cooperative effects are probably initiated and trans-... 

Redox proteins are relatively small molecules. In biological systems they are membrane associated, mobile (soluble) or associated with other proteins. Their molecular structure ensures specific interactions with other proteins or enzymes. In a simplified way this situation is mimicked when electrodes are chemically modified to substitute one of the reaction partners of biological redox pairs. The major classes of soluble redox active proteins are heme proteins, ferredoxins, flavoproteins and copper proteins (Table 2.1). In most cases they do not catalyze specific chemical reactions themselves, but function as biological (natural) electron carriers to or between enzymes catalyzing specific transformations. Also some proteins which are naturally not involved in redox processes but carry redox active sites (e.g., hemoglobin and myoglobin) show reversible electron exchange at proper functionalized electrodes. 

---