Cytochrome splitting

Complex II from bovine heart mitochondria was first reported by Doeg et al. (39) to contain a type b cytochrome which shows absorption peaks at 562, 530, and 430 nm in the reduced minus oxidized difference spectrum. Davis et al. ( 4) have recently reported the presence in complex II of a cytochrome which has termed cytochrome 5-557.5 based on the a-band position in the low temperature difference spectrum. This cytochrome shows an a peak at 560-561 nm at room temperature, and this peak is split into two hands at 557.5 and 550 nm at 77°K. This cytochrome, 6-560, is neither reduced nor oxidized during the course of the reaction. The spectral similarity to the cytochrome split from complex III may indicate this cytochrome to be a modified form of cytochrome 6 or bi... 

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

Formally, this procedure is correct only for spectra that are linear in the frequency, that is, spectra whose line positions are caused by the Zeeman interaction only, and whose linewidths are caused by a distribution in the Zeeman interaction (in g-values) only. Such spectra do exist low-spin heme spectra (e.g., cytochrome c cf. Figure 5.4F) fall in this category. But there are many more spectra that also carry contributions from field-independent interactions such as hyperfine splittings. Our frequency-renormalization procedure will still be applicable, as long as two spectra do not differ too much in frequency. In practice, this means that they should at least be taken at frequencies in the same band. For a counter-example, in Figure 5.6 we plotted the X-band and Q-band spectra of cobalamin (dominated by hyperfine interactions) normalized to a single frequency. To construct difference spectra from these two arrays obviously will generate nonsensical results. 

Cytochrome P450s work by activating molecular oxygen (O2). They are all classified as mono-oxygenases because in the overall catalytic process, O2 is split into two oxygen atoms but only one atom is utilized in oxidizing the substrate (RH) while the second atom is reduced by two electrons to form water [Eq. (4.1)]. 

Cytochrome c has 4 methionine residues, two of which are covalently linked to the haem moiety One of the other two methionine residues is coordinated to the iron in the axial position The major S 2 p band of the crystalline compound appears at 162.6 eV attributable to the methionine residues. Prolongued irradiation causes an increase of the RSOJ or the sulphate band from 28% to 40% (Table 2). When aqueous cytochrome c is recorded, the amount of oxidised sulphur rises to 63% of the methionine sulphur band. The possible extraneously bound redox active transition metals, probably, have created a metal driven Haber Weiss reaction which led to the marked amount of oxidised sulphur observed. Splitting of the iron-sulphur bonding by cyanide results in dramatic increase of the 167.7 band and the additional appearance of a S 2p signal at 164.3, probably due to RS=0 species. This oxidation is believed to be catalyzed by the haem iron. Hydrogen peroxide alone converts the methionine sulphur completly to sulphonic acid. 

The light-driven splitting of H20 is catalyzed by a Mn-containing protein complex 02 is produced. The reduced plastoquinone carries electrons to the cytochrome b6f complex from here they pass to plastocyanin, and then to P700 to replace those lost during its photoexcitation. 

In plants, both the water-splitting reaction and electron flow through the cytochrome baf complex are accompanied by proton pumping across the thylakoid membrane. The proton-motive force thus created drives ATP synthesis by a CF0CF complex similar to the mitochondrial F0Fi complex. 

Several modifications of protoheme are indicated in Fig. 16-5. To determine which type of heme exists in a particular protein, it is customary to split off the heme by treatment with acetone and hydrochloric acid and to convert it by addition of pyridine to the pyridine hemochrome for spectral analysis. By this means, protoheme was shown to occur in hemoglobin, myoglobin, cytochromes of the b and P450 types, and catalases and many peroxidases. Cytochromes a and a3 contain heme a, while one of the terminal oxidase... 

Cytochromes from bacterial, yeast, and mammalian sources have been investigated by Mossbauer spectroscopy (114—117). Horseheart cytochrome c and the c-type cytochrome from T. utilis show spectra characteristic of low-spin Fe(III) in the oxidized form of the protein and low-spin Fe(II) for the reduced form of the protein. Lang et al. (115) have analyzed the Mossbauer data in terms of a low-spin Hamiltonian in some detail. Cooke and Debrunner (116) present quadrupole data on dehydrated forms of oxidized and reduced cytochrome c the quadrupole splittings for hydrated and dehydrated forms of the reduced protein are quite similar in contrast to a difference of the oxidized form. No spin-state change is reported for either form of cytochrome c. 

Perhaps the best example of a well-defined nuclear hyperfine splitting in a hemoprotein is the Mossbauer spectra of cytochrome c peroxidase-... 

Cytochrome P-450 enzymes have been isolated from a variety of mammalian tissues, insects, plants, yeasts and bacteria. The P-450 cytochromes (Gunter and Turner, 1991) are membrane bound mono-oxygenase enzymes which catalyse oxygen atom transfer to entrapped non-polar substrates. The binding of carbon monoxide to the enzyme produces a split in the 420 nm Soret band to give bands at 364 and 450 nm. The absorption at 450 nm distinguishes the hemoprotein from all others and hence provides... 

Fig. 6. Sites of inhibitory action of DCMU in photosynthetic electron transport chain. The abbreviations are as follows - Cyt f cytochrome f, Fd ferredoxin, Mn water-splitting complex (manganese-containing), P680 pigment complex of photosystem II, P700 pigment complex of photosystem I, PC plastocyanin, PQ plastquinone, Q quencher, Rd NADP reductase and X direct electron acceptor complex...

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