Heme Deformation Research Articles

Heme-Protein Interactions and Functional Relevant Heme Deformations: The Cytochrome c Case.

Heme proteins are known to perform a plethora of biologically important functions. This article reviews work that has been conducted on various class I cytochrome c proteins over a period of nearly 50 years. The article focuses on the relevance of symmetry-lowering heme-protein interactions that affect the function of the electron transfer protein cytochrome c. The article provides an overview of various, mostly spectroscopic studies that explored the electronic structure of the heme group in these proteins and how it is affected by symmetry-lowering deformations. In addition to discussing a large variety of spectroscopic studies, the article provides a theoretical framework that should enable a comprehensive understanding of the physical chemistry that underlies the function not only of cytochrome c but of all heme proteins.

The effects of nickel oxide nanoparticles on structural changes, heme degradation, aggregation of hemoglobin and expression of apoptotic genes in lymphocytes

Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) have received great interests in medical and biotechnological applications. However, their adverse impacts against biological systems have not been well-explored. Herein, the influence of NiO NPs on structural changes, heme degradation and aggregation of hemoglobin (Hb) was evaluated by UV-visible (Vis) spectroscopy, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and molecular modeling investigations. Also, the morphological changes and expression of Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA in human lymphocyte cell exposed to NiO NPs were assayed by DAPI staining and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR), respectively. The UV-Vis study depicted that NiO NPs resulted in the displacement of aromatic residues and heme groups and production of the pro-aggregatory species. Intrinsic and Thioflavin T (ThT) fluorescence studies revealed that NiO NPs resulted in heme degradation and amorphous aggregation of Hb, respectively, which the latter result was also confirmed by TEM study. Moreover, far UV-CD study depicted that NiO NPs lead to substantial secondary structural changes of Hb. Furthermore, near UV-CD displayed that NiO NPs cause quaternary conformational changes of Hb as well as heme displacement. Molecular modelling study also approved that NiO NPs resulted in structural alterations of Hb and heme deformation. Moreover, morphological and genotoxicity assays revealed that the DNA fragmentation and expression ratio of Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA increased in lymphocyte cells treated with NiO NPs for 24 hr. In conclusion, this study indicates that NiO NPs may affect the biological media and their applications should be limited.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

Noncovalent interactions dominate dynamic heme distortion in cytochrome P450 4B1.

Cytochrome P450 4B1 (4B1) functions in both xenobiotic and endobiotic metabolism. An ester linkage between Glu-310 in 4B1 and the 5-methyl group of heme facilitates preferential hydroxylation of terminal (ω) methyl groups of hydrocarbons (HCs) and fatty acids compared with ω-1 sites bearing weaker C-H bonds. This preference is retained albeit diminished 4-fold for the E310A mutant, but the reason for this is unclear. Here, a crystal structure of the E310A-octane complex disclosed that noncovalent interactions maintain heme deformation in the absence of the ester linkage. Consistent with the lower symmetry of the heme, resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy revealed large enhancements of RR peaks for high-spin HC complexes of 4B1 and the E310A mutant relative to P450 3A4. Whereas these enhancements were diminished in RR spectra of a low-spin 4B1-N-hydroxy-N'-(4-butyl-2-methylphenyl)formamidine complex, a crystal structure indicated that this inhibitor does not alter heme ruffling. RR spectra of Fe2+-CO HC complexes revealed larger effects of HC length in E310A than in 4B1, suggesting that reduced rigidity probably underlies increased E310A-catalyzed (ω-1)-hydroxylation. Diminished effects of the HC on the position of the Fe-CO stretching mode in 4B1 suggested that the ester linkage limits substrate access to the CO. Heme ruffling probably facilitates autocatalytic ester formation by reducing inhibitory coordination of Glu-310 with the heme iron. This also positions the 5-methyl for a reaction with the proposed glutamyl radical intermediate and potentially enhances oxo-ferryl intermediate reactivity for generation of the glutamyl radical to initiate ester bond formation and ω-hydroxylation.

Investigations of the Low-Frequency Spectral Density of Cytochrome c upon Equilibrium Unfolding

The equilibrium unfolding process of ferric horse heart cytochrome c (cyt c), induced by guanidinium hydrochloride (GdHCl), was studied using UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, resonance Raman spectroscopy, and vibrational coherence spectroscopy (VCS). The unfolding process was successfully fit using a three-state model which included the fully folded (N) and unfolded (U) states, along with an intermediate (I) assigned to a Lys bound heme. The VCS spectra revealed for the first time several low-frequency heme modes that are sensitive to cyt c unfolding: γ(a) (~50 cm(-1)), γ(b) (~80 cm(-1)), γ(c) (~100 cm(-1)), and ν(s)(His-Fe-His) at 205 cm(-1). These out-of-plane modes have potential functional relevance and are activated by protein-induced heme distortions. The free energies for the N-I and the I-U transitions at pH 7.0 and 20 °C were found to be 4.6 kcal/M and 11.6 kcal/M, respectively. Imidazole was also introduced to replace the methionine ligand so the unfolding can be modeled as a two-state system. The intensity of the mode γ(b)~80 cm(-1) remains nearly constant during the unfolding process, while the amplitudes of the other low frequency modes track with spectral changes observed at higher frequency. This confirms that the heme deformation changes are coupled to the protein tertiary structural changes that take place upon unfolding. These studies also reveal that damping of the coherent oscillations depends sensitively on the coupling between heme and the surrounding water solvent.

Opposing Influences of Ruffling and Doming Deformation on the 4‐N Cavity Size of Porphyrin Macrocycles: The Role of Heme Deformations Revealed

Ruffle- and dome-type porphyrins were developed as model systems to investigate the role of deformation mode and degree of distortion in heme. Their crystal structures revealed that as the degree of distortion increases, cavity size can be contracted in the ruffle mode and expanded in the dome mode, and the size of cavity can exceed the limit of free metal ions from the fourth period (see scheme).

Using spectroscopic tools to probe porphyrin deformation and porphyrin-protein interactions

The reactivity and functionality of heme proteins are to a significant extent determined by the conformation of their functional heme groups and by the interaction of axial ligands with their protein environment. This review focuses on experimental methods and theoretical concepts for elucidating symmetry lowering perturbations of the heme induced by the protein environment of the heme pocket. First, we discuss a variety of methods which can be used to probe the electric field at the heme, including spectral hole burning as well as low temperature absorption and room temperature circular dichroism spectroscopy. Second, we show how heme deformations can be described as superposition of deformations along normal coordinates, thereby using the irreducible representations of the D4h point group as a classification tool. Finally, resonance Raman spectroscopy is introduced as a tool to probe the deformations of metalloprophyrins in solution and in protein matrices by measuring and comparing intensities and depolarization properties rather than wavenumber positions.

Inherently Distorted Heme as a Novel Tool for Myoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier

The two types of artificial myoglobins (Mbs) containing inherently distorted α-ethyl-2,4-dimethyldeuteroheme and undistorted 2,4-dimethyldeuteroheme were prepared to examine the influence of nonplanar heme deformation on the reactivity of Mb. In ferrous deoxy proteins, the paramagnetic proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectra showed that the deformed heme caused a 3.2-ppm lower-field shift of the proximal histidine signal, indicating a larger iron displacement from the heme plane upon the nonplanar deformation. The Mb with the nonplanar heme exhibited a markedly lower oxygen affinity as compared with the Mb containing the planar heme. The result suggests the utility of heme distortion to design the Mb-based oxygen carrier.

Molecular Insight into Intrinsic Heme Distortion in Ligand Binding in Hemoprotein

A pair of myoglobins containing inherently distorted alpha-ethyl-2,4-dimethyldeuteroheme or undistorted 2,4-dimethyldeuteroheme were prepared, and the functional consequence of intrinsic heme deformation was investigated. The visible absorption peaks of the myoglobin bearing the distorted heme exhibited a bathochromic shift, indicating that the heme was deformed in the protein pocket. Ligand affinities for the ferric myoglobin with the distorted heme were found to be higher than those of the myoglobin bearing the undistorted heme. The observation suggested that the iron atom was more displaced toward the proximal histidine to weaken the coordination of the water molecule. In the paramagnetic proton NMR spectrum of ferrous deoxy protein, the deformed heme caused a 3.2 ppm lower-field shift of the proximal histidine signal, supporting an enhanced iron-histidine interaction. The deformed heme in ferrous myoglobin lowered the oxygen and carbon monoxide affinities by 25- and 480-fold, respectively, and caused the cleavage of the iron-histidine bond in a fractional population of the nitric oxide derivative. These results demonstrate a distinctive controlling mechanism for ligand binding by the deformed heme. Upon the heme distortion, the iron atom is more attracted by the proximal histidine to reduce the affinity of exogenous ligands for the ferrous heme.

A computational analysis of electromerism in hemoprotein Fe(I) models

The electronic structures of formally Fe(I) centers in thiolate- and imidazole-ligated hemoproteins are examined with density functional theory. The S = 1/2 spin state of the imidazole-ligated model apparently features a net total of one unpaired electron on the porphyrin, suggestive of a macrocycle-centered reductive process; however, this spin density originates from two different orbitals, each carrying 0.5 spin units on the porphyrin. Under these conditions, the system may be described as S = 3/2 Fe(I) (d(xy)(2)d(xz)(1)d(yz)(1)dz2(1)) antiferromagnetically coupled to a porphyrin triplet state; nevertheless, there is still the caveat that the iron d (xz) and d (yz) orbitals are strongly mixed with porphyrin orbitals, to such an extent that they each harbor 0.5 spin units and hence an alternative description as Fe(II) or Fe(III) cannot be ruled out. Electromerism phenomena are described in the formally Fe(I) systems examined here, with electronic structures varying between Fe(II) and Fe(III) in various spin states, coupled either ferro- or antiferromagnetically to porphyrin radicals. The main factors controlling this electromerism appear to be the identity of the axial ligand, the iron-axial ligand bond length, and the overall spin state; heme deformations, ligand charge, or medium polarity do not appear to qualitatively affect the electronic structures of these systems.

Out‐of‐plane deformations of the heme group in different ferrocytochrome c proteins probed by resonance Raman spectroscopy

AbstractWe measured the low‐wavenumber polarized resonance Raman spectra of horse heart (hhc), chicken (chc) and yeastC102T (yc) ferrocytochromes c with Soret excitation. We examined the out‐of‐plane (oop) deformations of the heme groups by virtue of relative intensities and depolarization ratios of a variety of oop and in‐plane (ip) Raman active bands. Analysis of relative Raman intensities shows differences in deviation from planarity of the heme groups of yeast, horse heart and chicken cytochromes c. The heme groups in cytochrome c proteins have been shown by normal coordinate static deformation (NSD) analysis from crystal structures to exhibit a dominant ruffling (B1u) deformation. As a consequence the B1u modes, γ10 − γ12, become resonance Raman active. We used normalized Raman intensity ratios and depolarization ratios of oop Raman active modes, whose intensities are attributable to specific nonplanar deformations, to estimate and compare their Franck‐Condon‐type and Jahn‐Teller‐type coupling magnitudes for horse heart, chicken and yeast ferrocytochrome c at neutral pH. These coupling magnitudes allow for a quantitative comparison of oop deformations between individual heme groups. Chicken ferrocytochrome was found to have the largest ruffling deformation of the three investigated proteins, followed by horse heart and yeast cytochrome c. The heme group of the former is slightly more ruffled than the corresponding active site of the latter, while saddling in both proteins is substantially larger than in chicken ferrocytochrome c. The Raman data are sensitive enough to allow a comparison of lesser deformations. Doming, which is a kinetic coordinate in many heme proteins, is largest in chicken and smallest in yeast cytochrome c. Waving is largest in yeast, followed by horse heart and chicken cytochrome c. Propellering deformations could be compared for chicken and horse heart cytochrome c and were found to be substantially larger in the latter. A comparison with heme deformations obtained from X‐ray structures (for horse heart and yeast cytochrome c) and from molecular dynamics simulations (MDS) (performed for all three proteins) yields some agreement with the main ruffling and saddling deformations derived from the crystal structures, whereas the heme conformations produced by MDS seem to account better for smaller deformations like doming and propellering. The present study demonstrates the usefulness of resonance Raman spectroscopy for the analysis of nonplanar deformations in heme proteins. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The impact of altered protein‐heme interactions on the resonance Raman spectra of heme proteins. Studies of heme rotational disorder

Heme proteins that have been reconstituted with certain hemins may contain substantial fractions of a minor component in which the orientation of the heme in the folded pocket differs from the major ("native") conformation by a 180 degrees rotation about the alpha-gamma meso axis. In fact, this minor component has also been shown to exist in some native proteins, including several mammalian globins. While resonance Raman spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful probe of active site structure of heme proteins, no systematic study has yet been undertaken to elucidate the specific spectral changes associated with this disorder. In the present work, combined analyses of the temporal behavior of both NMR and RR data sets have been completed to permit the extraction of a unique RR spectrum for the disoriented form, documenting rather dramatic changes associated with this rotational disorder. In addition, the use of protohemes bearing selectively deuterated peripheral methyl groups has permitted the association of the observed modes with specific fragments of the heme residing in the reversed orientation. The studies conducted here clearly illustrate the exquisite sensitivity of low frequency heme deformation modes to altered protein-heme interactions.

Static Normal Coordinate Deformations of the Heme Group in Mutants of Ferrocytochrome c from Saccharomyces cerevisiae Probed by Resonance Raman Spectroscopy

The function of heme proteins is, to a significant extent, influenced by the ligand field probed by the heme iron, which itself can be affected by deformations of the heme macrocycle. The exploration of this field is difficult because the heme structure obtained from X-ray crystallography is not resolved enough to unambiguously identify structural changes on the scale of 10(-2) A. However, asymmetric deformations in this order of magnitude affect the depolarization ratio of the resonance Raman lines assignable to normal vibrations of the heme group. We have measured the dispersion of the depolarization ratios of four structure sensitive Raman bands (i.e., nu4, nu11, nu21, and nu28) in yeast iso-1-ferrocytochrome c and its mutants N52V, Y67F, and N52VY67F with B- and Q-band excitation. The DPR dispersion of all bands indicates the presence of asymmetric in-plane and out-of-plane deformations. The replacement of the polar tyrosine residue at position 67 by phenylalanine significantly increases the triclinic B2g deformation, which involves a distortion of the pyrrole symmetry. We relate this deformation to changes of the electronic structure of pyrrole A, which modulates the interaction between its propionate substituents and the protein environment. This specific heme deformation is eliminated in the double mutant N52VY67F. The additional substitution of N52 by valine induces a tetragonal B1g deformation which involves asymmetric changes of the Fe-N distances and increases the rhombicity of the ligand field probed by the heme iron. This heme deformation might be caused by the elimination of the water-protein hydrogen-bonding network in the heme cavity. The single mutation N52V does not significantly perturb the heme symmetry, but a small B1g deformation is consistent with our data and the heme structure obtained from a 1 ns molecular dynamics simulation of the protein.

Nonplanar Heme Deformations and Excited State Displacements in Nickel Porphyrins Detected by Raman Spectroscopy at Soret Excitation

We have correlated the Raman intensities of out-of-plane modes of nickel porphyrins with the nonplanar deformations of specific symmetries, i.e., static normal coordinate deformations (SNCDs) expressed in terms of irreducible representations of the unperturbed D(4h) point group. The model porphyrins Ni(II) octaethyltetraphenylporphyrin (NiOETPP), Ni(II) tetra(isopropyl)porphyrin (NiT((i)Pr)P), Ni(II) tetra(tert-butyl)porphyrin (NiT((t)Bu)P), and Ni(II) meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (NiTPP) were chosen because they exhibit significant out-of-plane deformations of different symmetries. At B-band excitation, the Raman scattering of out-of-plane modes becomes activated mostly via the Franck-Condon mechanism. Some characteristic bands from out-of-plane modes in the spectra were identified as reliable predictors of the type and magnitude of out-of-plane deformation. The gamma(10)-gamma(13) bands are indicators of ruffling (B(1u)) deformations for porphyrins, as confirmed by data for NiTPP, NiT((i)Pr)P, and NiT((t)Bu)P, where the Raman intensity increases with the magnitude of the ruffling deformation. The gamma(15)-gamma(17) bands are indicators of saddling (B(2u)) deformations, as shown by data for NiOETPP, which is highly saddled. By comparing the relative intensities of these prominent Raman bands we estimated the vibronic coupling parameters using a self-consistent analysis, and showed that they reproduce the respective B-band absorption profiles. We also identified the deformations along the lowest wavenumber normal coordinates as the predominant reason for the Raman activity of out-of-plane modes. Our results suggest that some of the normal coordinates (gamma(10) and gamma(13)) may be used as tools to quantitatively probe the nonplanar deformations of metalloporphyrins with alkyl substituents at the meso-positions. Out-of-plane deformations also increase the vibronic coupling strength of some low frequency in-plane Raman modes, namely, nu(7) and nu(8). Generally, the Raman data suggest that the excited B-state is substantially more nonplanar than the ground state. The overall larger vibronic coupling of ruffled porphyrins yields substantially larger dipole strengths for the vibronic sidebands associated with the B-state transition, so that the relative absorptivity of the B(v) band can be used as a convenient tool to probe the nonplanarity of the porphyrin macrocycle.

Non‐planar heme deformations and excited state displacements in horseradish peroxidase detected by Raman spectroscopy at Soret excitation

AbstractWe studied the out‐of‐plane modes of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) in different spin, oxidation and ligation states by measuring the respective resonance Raman spectra with (near) Soret excitation. The non‐planar modes of the heme are Raman inactive for planar macrocycles, but become resonance Raman active in the presence of out‐of‐plane deformations. The thus induced Raman scattering results mostly from Franck–Condon type coupling. We observed bands from a variety of out‐of‐plane modes such as γ5, γ6, γ7(A2u) modes, γ21 and γ22(Eg), γ15(B2u) and γ11(B1u). The appearance of these bands is clearly indicative of non‐planar deformations of the same symmetry. We determined the relative intensities of all sufficiently intense Raman modes of ferric pentacoordinated, quantum mixed and hexacoordinated low‐spin as well as of ferrous pentacoordinated high‐spin HRP C. The apparent vibronic coupling parameters were obtained from a self‐consistent analysis of the Raman intensities and the respective optical absorption spectrum. They revealed significantly reduced displacements of the excited B‐state for the ferrous, deoxy‐like state compared with the resting ferric state. An analysis of the obtained coupling strengths of out‐of‐plane modes revealed that they are predominantly induced by static non‐planar deformations along the normal coordinates of the lowest wavenumber modes of a given symmetry type. We used the deformations of the heme in resting HRP C to determine the vibronic coupling strength of the experimentally detectable out‐of‐plane modes and subsequently employed this information to obtain the non‐planar deformations for the investigated ferric hexacoordinated low‐spin state. This yielded a substantial reduction of the ruffling distortion, whereas the doming deformation remained mostly unaffected by the change of the iron's spin and ligation state. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Resonance Raman and Infrared Spectroscopic Studies of High-Output Forms of Human Soluble Guanylyl Cyclase

The allosteric regulator BAY-41-2272 converts the CO adduct of soluble guanylyl cyclase (CO-sGC) enzyme from a low- to high-output form, with respect to production of cGMP. Resonance Raman (RR) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic techniques are used to show that the CO-sGC exists as major and minor conformers, both having nu(Fe-CO) and nu(C-O) modes characteristic of 6-coordinate species. It is further shown that addition of BAY-41-2272 to the CO adduct induces the transition of some fraction of the initial CO-heme adducts into two new CO-heme complexes, the fractional conversion being dependent on the temperature. One new complex displays vibrational modes characteristic of pentacoordinated CO-adduct, and its formation is not affected by temperature. The second complex, although slightly different from the original CO-adducts, is hexacoordinated, and its formation is facilitated by temperature. The production of substantial amounts of the 5-coordinate CO adduct upon addition of BAY-41-2272, reveals the fact that several out-of-plane heme deformation modes are simultaneously activated, an observation similar to that realized upon NO activation. While the precise nature of these modes will require elucidation by isotopic labeling experiments, by analogy with earlier studies of other heme proteins, several bands associated with modes attributable to peripheral substituent deformations and methine carbon movements are implicated. The documented formation of two new forms upon addition of Bay-41-2272 (a 5-coordinate and a new 6-coordinate form) is discussed with respect to the implications for enzyme activation.

Heme Distortion Modulated by Ligand-Protein Interactions in Inducible Nitric-oxide Synthase

The catalytic center of nitric-oxide synthase (NOS) consists of a thiolate-coordinated heme macrocycle, a tetrahydrobiopterin (H4B) cofactor, and an l-arginine (l-Arg)/N-hydroxyarginine substrate binding site. To determine how the interplay between the cofactor, the substrates, and the protein matrix housing the heme regulates the enzymatic activity of NOS, the CO-, NO-, and CN(-)-bound adducts of the oxygenase domain of the inducible isoform of NOS (iNOS(oxy)) were examined with resonance Raman spectroscopy. The Raman data of the CO-bound ferrous protein demonstrated that the presence of l-Arg causes the Fe-C-O moiety to adopt a bent structure because of an H-bonding interaction whereas H4B binding exerts no effect. Similar behavior was found in the CN(-)-bound ferric protein and in the nitric oxide (NO)-bound ferrous protein. In contrast, in the NO-bound ferric complexes, the addition of l-Arg alone does not affect the structural properties of the Fe-N-O moiety, but H4B binding forces it to adopt a bent structure, which is further enhanced by the subsequent addition of l-Arg. The differential interactions between the various heme ligands and the protein matrix in response to l-Arg and/or H4B binding is coupled to heme distortions, as reflected by the development of a variety of out-of-plane heme modes in the low frequency Raman spectra. The extent and symmetry of heme deformation modulated by ligand, substrate, and cofactor binding may provide important control over the catalytic and autoinhibitory properties of the enzyme.

Heme distortions in sperm-whale carbonmonoxy myoglobin: correlations between rotational strengths and heme distortions in MD-generated structures.

We have investigated the effects of heme rotational isomerism in sperm-whale carbonmonoxymyoglobin using computational techniques. Several molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for the two rotational isomers A and B, which are related by a 180 degrees rotation around the alpha-gamma axis of the heme, of sperm-whale carbonmonoxy myoglobin in water. Both neutron diffraction and NMR structures were used as starting structures. In the absence of an experimental structure, the structure of isomer B was generated by rotating the heme in the structure of isomer A. Distortions of the heme from planarity were characterized by normal coordinate structural decomposition and by the angle of twist of the pyrrole rings from the heme plane. The heme distortions of the neutron diffraction structure were conserved in the MD trajectories, but in the NMR-based trajectories, where the heme distortions are less well defined, they differ from the original heme deformations. The protein matrix induced similar distortions on the hemes in orientations A and B. Our results suggest that the binding site prefers a particular macrocycle conformation, and a 180 degrees rotation of the heme does not significantly alter the protein's preference for this conformation. The intrinsic rotational strengths of the two Soret transitions, separated according to their polarization in the heme plane, show strong correlations with the ruffling deformation and the average twist angle of the pyrrole rings. The total rotational strength, which includes contributions from the chromophores in the protein, shows a weaker correlation with heme distortions.

Anharmonic Protein Motions and Heme Deformations in Myoglobin Cyanide Probed by Absorption and Resonance Raman Spectroscopy

The Soret absorption of myoglobin cyanide in a 65% glycerol/water mixture was measured as a function of temperature between 20 and 300 K. The data were analyzed by using an earlier model relating each transition into the vibronic manifold of the electronic B-state to a Voigtian band profile (Cupane et al. Eur. Biophys. J. 1995, 23, 385, 1995). Its Gaussian part contains a temperature-dependent component due to the coupling of low-frequency modes to the Soret transition. The analysis of the vibronic substructure was facilitated by comparison with vibronic coupling parameters derived from the line intensities in the polarized Raman spectra taken with Soret excitation. From the depolarization ratios of several Raman lines, the existence of asymmetric heme macrocycle distortions was inferred, which lift the degeneracy of the excited B state. Raman intensities and depolarization ratios were then analyzed by a theory that formulates the polarizability tensor in terms of a time-independent perturbation theory. T...

Functional Regulation of Myoglobin by Iron Corrphycene

Abstract Iron corrphycene, a novel isomeric heme, was incorporated into myoglobin to examine the influence of heme deformation on the function. The reconstituted protein, although functionally active, exhibits extremely lower affinities for O2 and CO as compared with the native protein. The functional anomaly was explained in terms of modified iron reactivity in the trapezoidal coordination core.

The Quantum Mixed-Spin Heme State of Barley Peroxidase:A Paradigm for Class III Peroxidases

Electronic absorption and resonance Raman (RR) spectra of the ferric form of barley grain peroxidase (BP 1) at various pH values, at both room temperature and 20K, are reported, together with electron paramagnetic resonance spectra at 10K. The ferrous forms and the ferric complex with fluoride have also been studied. A quantum mechanically mixed-spin (QS) state has been identified. The QS heme species coexists with 6- and 5-cHS hemes; the relative populations of these three spin states are found to be dependent on pH and temperature. However, the QS species remains in all cases the dominant heme spin species. Barley peroxidase appears to be further characterized by a splitting of the two vinyl stretching modes, indicating that the vinyl groups are differently conjugated with the porphyrin. An analysis of the currently available spectroscopic data for proteins from all three peroxidase classes suggests that the simultaneous occurrence of the QS heme state as well as the splitting of the two vinyl stretching modes is confined to class III enzymes. The former point is discussed in terms of the possible influences of heme deformations on heme spin state. It is found that moderate saddling alone is probably not enough to cause the QS state, although some saddling may be necessary for the QS state.