Cytochrome electron-transfer reaction

The most conspicuous use of iron in biological systems is in our blood, where the erythrocytes are filled with the oxygen-binding protein hemoglobin. The red color of blood is due to the iron atom bound to the heme group in hemoglobin. Similar heme-bound iron atoms are present in a number of proteins involved in electron-transfer reactions, notably cytochromes. A chemically more sophisticated use of iron is found in an enzyme, ribo nucleotide reductase, that catalyzes the conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides, an important step in the synthesis of the building blocks of DNA. 

Cyclic voltammetry and other electrochemical methods offer important and sometimes unique approaches to the electroactive species. Protein organization and kinetic approaches (Correia dos Santos et al. 1999, Schlereth 1999) can also be studied by electrochemical survey. The electron transfer reaction between cytochrome P450scc is an important system for... 

C20-0074. Draw a crystal field splitting diagram that illustrates the electron transfer reaction of a cytochrome. 

C. Shen and N.M. Kostic. Kinetics of photoinduced electron-transfer reactions within sol-gel silica glass doped with zinc cytochrome c. Study of electrostatic effects in confined liquids. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 1304-1312 (1997). 

D.E. Reed and F.M. Hawkridge, Direct electron transfer reactions of cytochrome c at silver electrodes. Anal. Chem. 59, 2334-2339 (1987). 

D.R. McMillin, Purdue University In addition to the charge effects discussed by Professor Sykes, I would like to add that structural effects may help determine electron transfer reactions between biological partners. A case in point is the reaction between cytochrome C551 and azurin where, in order to explain the observed kinetics, reactive and unreactive forms of azurin have been proposed to exist in solution (JL). The two forms differ with respect to the state of protonation of histidine-35 and, it is supposed, with respect to conformation as well. In fact, the lH nmr spectra shown in the Figure provide direct evidence that the nickel(II) derivative of azurin does exist in two different conformations, which interconvert slowly on the nmr time-scale, depending on the state of protonation of the His35 residue (.2) As pointed out by Silvestrini et al., such effects could play a role in coordinating the flow of electrons and protons to the terminal acceptor in vivo. 

The cytochromes are another group of haem proteins found in all aerobic forms of life. Cytochromes are electron carriers involving a Fe(ii)/Fe(m) redox system. They are a crucial part of the electron transfer reactions in mitochondria, in aspects of the nitrogen cycle, and in enzymic processes associated with photosynthesis. 

Cytochrome c is responsible for accepting an electron from cytochrome Ci and transferring it to cytochrome c oxidase. The electron transfer reaction may occur via the exposed portion of the ring or by tunnelling through the protein (and involving an outer-sphere mechanism). The details of this process have not been fully elucidated and have remained the focus of much research. 

In the following sections the effect of pressure on different types of electron-transfer processes is discussed systematically. Some of our work in this area was reviewed as part of a special symposium devoted to the complementarity of various experimental techniques in the study of electron-transfer reactions (124). Swaddle and Tregloan recently reviewed electrode reactions of metal complexes in solution at high pressure (125). The main emphasis in this section is on some of the most recent work that we have been involved in, dealing with long-distance electron-transfer processes involving cytochrome c. However, by way of introduction, a short discussion on the effect of pressure on self-exchange (symmetrical) and nonsymmetrical electron-transfer reactions between transition metal complexes that have been reported in the literature, is presented. 

The systems that we investigated in collaboration with others involved intermolecular and intramolecular electron-transfer reactions between ruthenium complexes and cytochrome c. We also studied a series of intermolecular reactions between chelated cobalt complexes and cytochrome c. A variety of high-pressure experimental techniques, including stopped-flow, flash-photolysis, pulse-radiolysis, and voltammetry, were employed in these investigations. As the following presentation shows, a remarkably good agreement was found between the volume data obtained with the aid of these different techniques, which clearly demonstrates the complementarity of these methods for the study of electron-transfer processes. 

In order to obtain further information on the magnitude of the overall reaction volume and the location of the transition state along the reaction coordinate, a series of intermolecular electron-transfer reactions of cytochrome c with pentaammineruthenium complexes were studied, where the sixth ligand on the ruthenium complex was selected in such a way that the overall driving force was low enough so that the reaction kinetics could be studied in both directions (153, 154). The selected substituents were isonicotinamide (isn), 4-ethylpyr-idine (etpy), pyridine (py), and 3,5-lutidine (lut). The overall reaction can be formulated as... 

Figure 13.12 The protonmotive Q cycle. Electron transfer reactions are numbered and circled. Dashed arrows designate movement of ubiquinol or ubiquinone between centres N and P and of the ISP between cytochrome b and cytochrome c,. Solid black bars indicate sites of inhibition by antimycin, UHDTB and stigmatellin. (From Hunte et al., 2003. Copyright 2003, with permission from Elsevier.)...

Dihaloelimination is a two-electron transfer reaction. Thompson et al. [377] reported reductive dichloroelimination of 1,1,2-TCA and TeCA by hepatic micro-somes from rat Ever, with VC and both tDCE and cDCE as metabolites. Reductive dichloroelimination from hexa- and pentachloroethane by microsomal cytochrome P450 was studied by Nastainczyk et al. [378]. The main products of the in vitro metabolism of hexa- and pentachloroethane were PCE (99.5%) and TCE (96%), respectively, with minor amounts of pentachloroethane (0.5%) and TeCA (4%), respectively, via reductive dechlorination. 

Electron-transfer reactions, especially step (4), are too fast and the intermediates too fleeting to be properly characterized and discriminated they are, moreover, contaminated by recycling of the free ferric cytochrome (Fe " ) and by spontaneous nonhydroxylating decay of the oxyferrous compound. The reaction cycle lacks any consistent knowledge of the nature and reactivity of unstable intermediates occurring beyond the metastable oxyferrous compound (O2—Fe) RH. 

Electron-transfer chains in plants differ in several striking aspects from their mammalian counterparts. Plant mitochondria are well known to contain alternative oxidase that couples oxidation of hydroquinones (e.g., ubiquinol) directly to reduction of oxygen. Semiquinones (anion-radicals) and superoxide ions are formed in such reactions. The alternative oxidase thus provides a bypass to the conventional cytochrome electron-transfer pathway and allows plants to respire in the presence of compounds such as cyanides and carbon monoxide. There are a number of studies on this problem (e.g., see Affourtit et al. 2000, references therein). 

A [2Fe-2S] ferredoxin participating in electron transfer reactions from NADPH to cytochrome P-450 within the adrenal gland. 

Gray HB, Winkler JR (1996) Electron transfer in proteins. Annu Rev Biochem 65 537 Fedurco M (2000) Redox reactions of heme-containing metalloproteins dynamic effects of self-assembled monolayers on thermodynamics and kinetics of cytochrome c electron-transfer reactions. Coord Chem Rev 209 263... 

Willner I, Willner B (1991) Artificial Photosynthetic Model Systems Using Light-Induced Electron Transfer Reactions in Catalytic and Biocatalytic Assemblies. 159 153-218 Woggon W-D (1997) Cytochrome P450 Significance, Reaction Mechanisms and Active Site Analogues. 184 39 - 96... 

Parr, S. R., Barber, D., Greenwood, C., and Brunori, M. (1977). The electron-transfer reaction between azurin and the cytochrome c oxidase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Biochem. J. 167, 447-455. 

The heme groups of the cytochromes as well as many other transition metal centers act as carriers of electrons. For example, cytochrome c may accept an electron from reduced cytochrome Cj and pass it to cytochrome oxidase or cytochrome c peroxidase. The electron moves from one heme group to another over distances as great as 2 nm. Similar electron-transfer reactions between defined redox sites are met in photosynthetic reaction centers (Fig. 23-31), in metalloflavo-proteins (Fig. 15-9), and in mitochondrial membranes. 

Intramolecular electron transfer from Ru(II) to Fe(III) in (NH3)3Ru(II) (His-33)cyt(Fe(III)) induced by pulse-radiolysis reduction of Ru(III) in the (NH3)5Ru(III) (His-33)cyt(Fe(III)) complex were investigated [84]. The results obtained differ from those of refs. 77-80 where flash photolysis was used to study the similar electron transfer reaction. It was found [84] that, over the temperature range 276-317 K the rate of electron transfer from Ru(II) to Fe(III) is weakly temperature dependent with EA 3.3 kcal mol 1. At 298 K the value of kt = 53 2 s"1. The small differences in the temperature dependence of the electron tunneling rate in ruthenium-modified cytochrome c reported in refs. 77-80 and 84 was explained [84] by the different experimental conditions used in these two studies. 

An analogous approach has been applied to study the electron transfer reaction between yeast cytochrome c peroxidase (CCP) and cytochrome c (cyt c) by employing the complex between zinc-substituted CCP (ZnCCP) and native cyt c [70]. The two heme planes in this complex are nearly parallel at a metal-metal distance of 25 A and an edge-to-edge distance of 17-18 A. 

We now see that mitochondria contain a variety of molecules—cytochromes, flavins, ubiquinone, and iron-sulfur proteins—all of which can act as electron carriers. To discuss how these carriers cooperate to transport electrons from reduced substrates to 02, it is useful to have a measure of each molecule s tendency to release or accept electrons. The standard redox potential, E°, provides such a measure. Redox potentials are thermodynamic properties that depend on the differences in free energy between the oxidized and reduced forms of a molecule. Like the electric potentials that govern electron flow from one pole of a battery to another, E° values are specified in volts. Because electron-transfer reactions frequently involve protons also, an additional symbol is used to indicate that an E° value applies to a particular pH thus, E° refers to an E° at pH 7. 

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