Cytochrome-anion complex

Then the extra anion now associated with the oxidised cytochrome may be presumed to pass along the cytochrome electron-transport chain or move inwards by diffusion of the cytochrome-anion complex and be released at a point of lower oxidation potential, for instance, where cytochrome b reacts with flavoprotein. For this process to lead to anion uptake it is postulated that the release of the anion occurs in the inside of the diffusion barrier membrane. This hypothesis when first enunciated aroused considerable interest, not only because of Lundegdrdh s personal reputation as a plant physiologist, but because it was clearly capable of experimental test. 

FIG. 9 Dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy image of an unstained cytochrome b6f complexed with the amphiphilic short poly anions A8-75 (a C8 modified poly(acrylic acid) of 8000). Dark bar tobacco mosaic virus added as an internal standard of diameter 18 nm. Dots complexes of diameter ca. 10-15 nm. Reprinted from Ref. 71. Copyright 1998 with permission from Elsevier.)... 

Since HA is unstable in vivo , and is known to rapidly associate with the heme part of heme proteins , and possibly also with a variety of biological oxidants, such as the superoxide anion that is produced by many mammalian cells, it is difficult to demonstrate its accumulation in vivo. Already in 1932 Lindsey and Rhines discussed some analytical difficulties in the detection of HA, since when added externally, it disappeared rapidly from bacterial cultures this led to the conclusion that even if it is produced as an intermediate, its consumption is too fast to allow the accumulation of sufficient quantities for analytical demonstration. Compelling indirect evidence for the presence of HA as an intermediate in the enzymatically catalyzed reduction of nitrite (N02 ) to NH3 was provided by Einsle and colleagues , who characterized the crystal structure of the complex obtained by soaking cytochrome c-nitrite reductase with NH20H. ... 

Several additional studies were carried out to obtain information about the precise behavior of the various components in the model system. The interplay between the manganese porphyrin and the rhodium cofactor was found to be crucial for an efficient catalytic performance of the whole assembly and, hence, their properties were studied in detail at different pH values in vesicle bilayers composed of various types of amphiphiles, viz. cationic (DODAC), anionic (DHP), and zwitterionic (DPPC) [30]. At pH values where the reduced rhodium species is expected to be present as Rh only, the rate of the reduction of 13 by formate increased in the series DPPC < DHP < DODAC, which is in line with an expected higher concentration of formate ions at the surface of the cationic vesicles. The reduction rates of 12 incorporated in the vesicle bilayers catalyzed by 13-formate increased in the same order, because formation of the Rh-formate complex is the rate-determining step in this reduction. When the rates of epoxidation of styrene were studied at pH 7, however, the relative rates were found to be reversed DODAC DPPC < DHP. Apparently, for epoxidation to occur, an efficient supply of protons to the vesicle surface is essential, probably for the step in which the Mn -02 complex breaks down into the active epoxidizing Mn =0 species and water. Using a-pinene as the substrate in the DHP-based system, a turnover number of 360 was observed, which is comparable to the turnover numbers observed for cytochrome P450 itself. 

Reaction of Cytochrome cimu with Tris(oxalato)cobalt(III) The cytochrome c protein was also used as reductant in a study of the redox reaction with tris (oxalato)cobalt(III).284 Selection of the anionic cobalt(III) species, [Conl(ox)3]3 was prompted, in part, because it was surmised that it would form a sufficiently stable precursor complex with the positively charged cyt c so that the equilibrium constant for precursor complex formation (K) would be of a magnitude that would permit it to be separated in the kinetic analysis of an intermolecular electron transfer process from the actual electron transfer kinetic step (kET).2S5 The reaction scheme for oxidation of cyt c11 may be outlined ... 

Reaction of Cytochrome cIinn with Bis(ferrozine)copper(II) Knowledge of the redox properties of cytochrome c was an encouragement to initiate a kinetics investigation of the reduction of an unusual copper(II) complex species by cyt c11. Ferrozine (5,6-bis(4-sulphonatophenyl)-3-(2-pyridyl)-1,2.4-triazine)286 (see Scheme 7.1), a ligand that had come to prominence as a sensitive spectrophotometric probe for the presence of aqua-Fe(II),19c,287 forms a bis complex with Cu(II) that is square pyramidal, with a water molecule in a fifth axial position, whereas the bis-ferrozine complex of Cu(I) is tetrahedral.286 These geometries are based primarily upon analysis of the UV/visible spectrum. Both complexes are anionic, as for the tris-oxalato complex of cobalt in reaction with cytochrome c (Section 7.3.3.4), the expectation is that the two partners will bind sufficiently strongly in the precursor complex to allow separation of the precursor formation constant from the electron transfer rate constant, from the empirical kinetic data. 

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