Electron Transfer Reactions of Myoglobin

Perhaps the most fundamental fimctional property of a heme prosthetic group at the active site of a heme protein is the relative stability of the reduced and oxidized states of the heme iron. A number of structural characteristics of the heme binding environment provided by the apo-protein have been identified as contributing to the regulation of this equilibrium and have been reviewed elsewhere 82-84). Although a comprehensive discussion of these factors is not possible in the space available here, they can be summarized briefly. The two most significant influences of the reduction potential of the heme iron appear to be the dielectric constant of the heme environment 81, 83) and the chemical 

The first electrochemical studies of Mb were reported for the horse heart protein in 1942 (94) and subsequently for sperm whale Mb (e.g., 95) through use of potentiometric titrations employing a mediator to achieve efficient equilibriation of the protein with the electrode (96). More recently, spectroelectrochemical measurements have also been employed (97, 98). The alternative methods of direct electrochemistry (99-102) that are used widely for other heme proteins (e.g., cytochrome c, cytochrome bs) have not been as readily applied to the study of myoglobin because coupling the oxidation-reduction eqiulibrium of this protein to a modified working electrode surface has been more difficult to achieve. As a result, most published electrochemical studies of wild-type and variant myoglobins have involved measurements at eqiulibrium rather than dynamic techniques. 

Recent work has resolved some of the issues that complicate direct electrochemistry of myoglobin, and, in fact, it has been demonstrated that Mb can interact effectively with a suitable electrode surface (103-113). This achievement has permitted the investigation of more complex aspects of Mb oxidation-reduction behavior (e.g., 106). In general, it appears that the primary difficulty in performing direct electrochemistry of myoglobin results from the change in coordination number that accompanies conversion of metMb (six-coordinate) to reduced (deoxy) Mb (five-coordinate) and the concomitant dissociation of the water molecule (or hydroxide at alkaline pH) that provides the distal ligand to the heme iron of metMb. 

Electrochemistry of Variants with an Altered Distal Ligand 

The H64 distal ligand of wild-type myoglobin does not coordinate to the heme iron in either the reduced or the oxidized form of the native protein but stabilizes the coordination of a distally boimd water molecule of metMb. Replacement of H64 with other amino acid residues can, therefore, change the coordination environment of the heme iron in two ways. Such variants either may possess a distal residue that is able to coordinate to the heme iron or may possess a distal residue that is incapable of either coordinating to the iron or of forming a hydrogen bond with a coordinated water molecule. 

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B. Mutagenesis of the Proximal Heme Binding Pocket Electron Transfer Reactions of Myoglobin... 

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