Potential electron transfer, role

His35 to ligated His46 may be important in an electron transfer role or in His35 exercising some conformational control of the active site. The reduction potential of P. aeruginosa azurin increases from 300 mV (pH 8) to 360 mV (pH 5), which is believed to be related to His35 protonation. A pK of 6.6 is observed for this process, or alternatively pK s for azurin in the oxidized (6.1) and reduced (7.2) forms can be obtained [56]. 

While being very similar in the general description, the RLT and electron-transfer processes differ in the vibration types they involve. In the first case, those are the high-frequency intramolecular modes, while in the second case the major role is played by the continuous spectrum of polarization phonons in condensed 3D media [Dogonadze and Kuznetsov 1975]. The localization effects mentioned in the previous section, connected with the low-frequency part of the phonon spectrum, still do not show up in electron-transfer reactions because of the asymmetry of the potential. 

The explicit mathematical treatment for such stationary-state situations at certain ion-selective membranes was performed by Iljuschenko and Mirkin 106). As the publication is in Russian and in a not widely distributed journal, their work will be cited in the appendix. The authors obtain an equation (s. (34) on page 28) similar to the one developed by Eisenman et al. 6) for glass membranes using the three-segment potential approach. However, the mobilities used in the stationary-state treatment are those which describe the ion migration in an electric field through a diffusion layer at the phase boundary. A diffusion process through the entire membrane with constant ion mobilities does not have to be assumed. The non-Nernstian behavior of extremely thin layers (i.e., ISFET) can therefore also be described, as well as the role of an electron transfer at solid-state membranes. 

Controlled-potential (potentiostatic) techniques deal with the study of charge-transfer processes at the electrode-solution interface, and are based on dynamic (no zero current) situations. Here, the electrode potential is being used to derive an electron-transfer reaction and the resultant current is measured. The role of the potential is analogous to that of the wavelength in optical measurements. Such a controllable parameter can be viewed as electron pressure, which forces the chemical species to gain or lose an electron (reduction or oxidation, respectively). 

Midpoint potential values are useful quantitites for defining the role of the various centers in the system. In some instances, these values have even been used to predict the location of the centers in the electron transfer chain, assuming that the potential increases along the chain from the electron donor to the electron acceptor. In several oxidoreductases, however, the measured potential of some centers was found to be clearly outside the range defined by the donor and the acceptor, which raised an intriguing question as to their function. This was observed, for instance, in the case of the [4Fe-4S] (Eni = -320 mV) center in E. coli fumarate reductase (249), the [3Fe-4S] + (Era = -30 mV) center in D. gigas hydrogenase (207), and the low-potential [4Fe-4S] + + (E, = 200 and -400 mV) centers in E. 

The many redox reactions that take place within a cell make use of metalloproteins with a wide range of electron transfer potentials. To name just a few of their functions, these proteins play key roles in respiration, photosynthesis, and nitrogen fixation. Some of them simply shuttle electrons to or from enzymes that require electron transfer as part of their catalytic activity. In many other cases, a complex enzyme may incorporate its own electron transfer centers. There are three general categories of transition metal redox centers cytochromes, blue copper proteins, and iron-sulfur proteins. 

ZnO (suspension) sensitizes the photoreduction of Ag" by xanthene dyes such as uranin and rhodamine B. In this reaction, ZnO plays the role of a medium to facilitate the efficient electron transfer from excited dye molecules to Ag" adsortei on the surface. The electron is transferred into the conduction band of ZnO and from there it reacts with Ag. In homogeneous solution, the transfer of an electron from the excited dye has little driving force as the potential of the Ag /Ag system is —1.8 V (Sect. 2.3). It seems that sufficient binding energy of the silver atom formed is available in the reduction of adsorbed Ag" ions, i.e. the redox potential of the silver couple is more positive under these circumstances. 

Studies of ferredoxin [152] and a photosynthetic reaction center [151] have analyzed further the protein s dielectric response to electron transfer, and the protein s role in reducing the reorganization free energy so as to accelerate electron transfer [152], Different force fields were compared, including a polarizable and a non-polarizable force field [151]. One very recent study considered the effect of point mutations on the redox potential of the protein azurin [56]. Structural relaxation along the simulated reaction pathway was analyzed in detail. Similar to the Cyt c study above, several slow relaxation channels were found, which limited the ability to obtain very precise free energy estimates. Only semiquantitative values were... 

Reported redox potentials of laccases are lower than those of non-phenolic compounds, and therefore these enzymes cannot oxidize such substances [7]. However, it has been shown that in the presence of small molecules capable to act as electron transfer mediators, laccases are also able to oxidize non-phenolic structures [68, 69]. As part of their metabolism, WRF can produce several metabolites that play this role of laccase mediators. They include compounds such as /V-hvdi oxvacetan i I ide (NHA), /V-(4-cyanophenyl)acetohydroxamic acid (NCPA), 3-hydroxyanthranilate, syringaldehyde, 2,2 -azino-bis(3-ethylben-zothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS), 2,6-dimethoxyphenol (DMP), violuric acid, 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT), 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpipperidin-iV-oxide radical and acetovanillone, and by expanding the range of compounds that can be oxidized, their presence enhances the degradation of pollutants [3]. 

The excited state redox potential of a sensitizer plays an important process. An approximate value of the excited state redox potential potentials of the ground state couples and the zero-zero excitation Equations (13) and (14). The zero-zero energy can be obtained from of the sensitizer 38 role in the electron transfer can be extracted from the energy (E0 0) according to the 77 K emission spectrum... 

At present, new developments challenge previous ideas concerning the role of nitric oxide in oxidative processes. The capacity of nitric oxide to oxidize substrates by a one-electron transfer mechanism was supported by the suggestion that its reduction potential is positive and relatively high. However, recent determinations based on the combination of quantum mechanical calculations, cyclic voltammetry, and chemical experiments suggest that °(NO/ NO-) = —0.8 0.2 V [56]. This new value of the NO reduction potential apparently denies the possibility for NO to react as a one-electron oxidant with biomolecules. However, it should be noted that such reactions are described in several studies. Thus, Sharpe and Cooper [57] showed that nitric oxide oxidized ferrocytochrome c to ferricytochrome c to form nitroxyl anion. These authors also proposed that the nitroxyl anion formed subsequently reacted with dioxygen, yielding peroxynitrite. If it is true, then Reactions (24) and (25) may represent a new pathway of peroxynitrite formation in mitochondria without the participation of superoxide. 

Now, we may consider in detail the mechanism of oxygen radical production by mitochondria. There are definite thermodynamic conditions, which regulate one-electron transfer from the electron carriers of mitochondrial respiratory chain to dioxygen these components must have the one-electron reduction potentials more negative than that of dioxygen Eq( 02 /02]) = —0.16 V. As the reduction potentials of components of respiratory chain are changed from 0.320 to +0.380 V, it is obvious that various sources of superoxide production may exist in mitochondria. As already noted earlier, the two main sources of superoxide are present in Complexes I and III of the respiratory chain in both of them, the role of ubiquinone seems to be dominant. Although superoxide may be formed by the one-electron oxidation of ubisemiquinone radical anion (Reaction (1)) [10,22] or even neutral semiquinone radical [9], the efficiency of these ways of superoxide formation in mitochondria is doubtful. 

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