Proton-coupled electron transfer drives the proton pump of cytochrome c oxidase

Electron transfer in cell respiration is coupled to proton translocation across mitochondrial and bacterial membranes, which is a primary event of biological energy transduction. The resulting electrochemical proton gradient is used to power energy-requiring reactions, such as ATP synthesis. Cytochrome c oxidase is a key component of the respiratory chain, which harnesses dioxygen as a sink for electrons and links O2 reduction to proton pumping. Electrons from cytochrome c are transferred sequentially to the O2 reduction site of cytochrome c oxidase via two other metal centres, Cu(A) and haem a, and this is coupled to vectorial proton transfer across the membrane by a hitherto unknown mechanism. On the basis of the kinetics of proton uptake and release on the two aqueous sides of the membrane, it was recently suggested that proton pumping by cytochrome c oxidase is not mechanistically coupled to internal electron transfer. Here we have monitored translocation of electrical charge equivalents as well as electron transfer within cytochrome c oxidase in real time. The results show that electron transfer from haem a to the O2 reduction site initiates the proton pump mechanism by being kinetically linked to an internal vectorial proton transfer. This reaction drives the proton pump and occurs before relaxation steps in which protons are taken up from the aqueous space on one side of the membrane and released on the other.     

An atypical haem in the cytochrome b(6)f complex

Photosystems I and II (PSI and II) are reaction centres that capture light energy in order to drive oxygenic photosynthesis; however, they can only do so by interacting with the multisubunit cytochrome b(6)f complex. This complex receives electrons from PSII and passes them to PSI, pumping protons across the membrane and powering the Q-cycle. Unlike the mitochondrial and bacterial homologue cytochrome bc(1), cytochrome b(6)f can switch to a cyclic mode of electron transfer around PSI using an unknown pathway. Here we present the X-ray structure at 3.1 A of cytochrome b(6)f from the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. The structure bears similarities to cytochrome bc(1) but also exhibits some unique features, such as binding chlorophyll, beta-carotene and an unexpected haem sharing a quinone site. This haem is atypical as it is covalently bound by one thioether linkage and has no axial amino acid ligand. This haem may be the missing link in oxygenic photosynthesis.     

A mechanistic principle for proton pumping by cytochrome c oxidase

In aerobic organisms, cellular respiration involves electron transfer to oxygen through a series of membrane-bound protein complexes. The process maintains a transmembrane electrochemical proton gradient that is used, for example, in the synthesis of ATP. In mitochondria and many bacteria, the last enzyme complex in the electron transfer chain is cytochrome c oxidase (CytcO), which catalyses the four-electron reduction of O2 to H2O using electrons delivered by a water-soluble donor, cytochrome c. The electron transfer through CytcO, accompanied by proton uptake to form H2O drives the physical movement (pumping) of four protons across the membrane per reduced O2. So far, the molecular mechanism of such proton pumping driven by electron transfer has not been determined in any biological system. Here we show that proton pumping in CytcO is mechanistically coupled to proton transfer to O2 at the catalytic site, rather than to internal electron transfer. This scenario suggests a principle by which redox-driven proton pumps might operate and puts considerable constraints on possible molecular mechanisms by which CytcO translocates protons.     

Directional electron transfer in ruthenium-modified horse heart cytochrome c

Cytochrome c can be modified by [(NH3)5RuII/III-] specifically at the imidazole moiety of histidine 33, and we have recently discussed the thermodynamics and kinetics of electron transfer within this modified protein. X-ray crystal structures of the oxidized and reduced forms of tuna cytochrome c indicate that the separation between the haem group of cytochrome c and the ruthenium label is 12-16 A. Internal electron transfer from the [(NH3)5RuII-] centre to the Fe(III) haem centre occurs with a rate constant k congruent to 53 s-1 (25 degrees C) (delta H = 3.5 kcal mol-1, delta S = -39 EU), as measured by pulse radiolysis. The measured unimolecular rate constant, k congruent to 53 s-1, is on the same timescale as a number of conformational changes that occur within the cytochrome c molecule. These results raise the question of whether electron transfer or protein conformational change is the rate limiting step in this process. We describe here an experiment that probes this intramolecular electron transfer step further. It involves reversing the direction of electron transfer by changing the redox potential of the ruthenium label. Electron transfer in the new ruthenium-cytochrome c derivative described here is from haem(II) to the Ru(III) label, whereas in (NH3)5Ru-cytochrome c the electron transfer is from Ru(II) to haem(III). Intramolecular electron transfer from haem(II) to Ru(III) in the new ruthenium-cytochrome c described here proceeds much slower (greater than 10(5) times) than the electron transfer from Ru(II) to haem(III) in the (NH3)5Ru-cytochrome c. We therefore conclude that electron transfer in cytochrome c is directional, with the protein envelope presumably involved in this directionality.     

Structural insights into electron transfer in caa3-type cytochrome oxidase

Cytochrome c oxidase is a member of the haem copper oxidase superfamily (HCO). HCOs function as the terminal enzymes in the respiratory chain of mitochondria and aerobic prokaryotes, coupling molecular oxygen reduction to transmembrane proton pumping. Integral to the enzyme's function is the transfer of electrons from cytochrome c to the oxidase via a transient association of the two proteins. Electron entry and exit are proposed to occur from the same site on cytochrome c. Here we report the crystal structure of the caa3-type cytochrome oxidase from Thermus thermophilus, which has a covalently tethered cytochrome c domain. Crystals were grown in a bicontinuous mesophase using a synthetic short-chain monoacylglycerol as the hosting lipid. From the electron density map, at 2.36?? resolution, a novel integral membrane subunit and a native glycoglycerophospholipid embedded in the complex were identified. Contrary to previous electron transfer mechanisms observed for soluble cytochrome c, the structure reveals the architecture of the electron transfer complex for the fused cupredoxin/cytochrome c domain, which implicates different sites on cytochrome c for electron entry and exit. Support for an alternative to the classical proton gate characteristic of this HCO class is presented.     

Structural Changes of Water Molecules Upon the Reduction of Quinones in The Reaction Center from Rhodobactery Sphaeroides

1 Results The photosynthetic bacterial reaction center (RC) is a membrane protein complex.The RC is composed of three protein subunits and redox components such as bacteriochlorophylls, bacteriopheophytins,and quinones.The RC performs the photochemical electron transfer from the bacteriochlorophyll dimer through a series of electron donor and acceptor molecules to a secondary quinone,QB.QB accepts electrons from a primary quinone,QA,in two sequential electron transfer reactions.The second electron trans...     

细胞色素C在SAM修饰电极上的电化学行为

应用循环伏安法研究了细胞色素c在2-氨基乙硫醇自组装膜修饰金电极上的电化学行为。结果表明，细胞色素c在2-氨基乙硫醇修饰的金电极上的电子传递过程为—扩散控制的可逆反应，2-氨基乙硫醇自组装膜可用作细胞色素c电子传递的有效促进剂。依据电化学石英晶体微天平和电化学交流阻抗谱的测量结果，讨论了单分子膜的组装过程及其对促进细胞色素c电子传递的作用机制。     

Identification of the electron transfers in cytochrome oxidase that are coupled to proton-pumping

Mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase is a functionally complex, membrane-bound respiratory enzyme which catalyses both the reduction of O2 to water and proton-pumping. During respiration, an exogenous donor, cytochrome c, donates four electrons to O2 bound at the bimetallic haem alpha 3 Fe-Cu centre within the enzyme. These four electron transfers are mediated by the enzyme's haem alpha and CuA redox centres and result in the translocation of four protons across the inner mitochondrial membrane. The molecular mechanism of proton translocation has not yet been delineated, however, and in the absence of direct experimental evidence all four electron transfers have been assumed to couple equally to proton-pumping. Here, I report the effects of proton-motive force and membrane potential on two equilibria involving intermediates of the bimetallic centre at different levels of O2 reduction. The results show that only two of the electron transfers, to the 'peroxy' and 'oxyferryl' intermediates of the bimetallic centre, are linked to proton translocation, a finding which strongly constrains candidate mechanisms for proton-pumping.     

Photochemistry of hypocrellin derivatives under anaerobic conditions

To improve the red absorption and solubility of hypocrellin, we have synthesized a series of hypocrellin B derivatives. The photochemistry of these new compounds in anaerobic media has been investigated by using electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and spectrophotometric methods. The semiquinone anion radicals can be produced by self-electron transfer on irradiation, with the formation efficiency and EPR hyperfine structures of the semiquinone anion radicals dependent on the structures of the derivatives. When an electron donor is present, the electron transfer from electron donor to hypocrellin B derivatives enhanced the production of the corresponding semiquinone anion radical; in addition, the semiquinone anion radical and hydroquinone can be detected spectrophotometrically. Structural modifications exert little effect on the absorption position of semiquinone anion radical and hydroquinone, but influence their formation efficiency significantly.     

Structure of fumarate reductase from Wolinella succinogenes at 2.2 A resolution

Fumarate reductase couples the reduction of fumarate to succinate to the oxidation of quinol to quinone, in a reaction opposite to that catalysed by the related complex II of the respiratory chain (succinate dehydrogenase). Here we describe the crystal structure at 2.2 A resolution of the three protein subunits containing fumarate reductase from the anaerobic bacterium Wolinella succinogenes. Subunit A contains the site of fumarate reduction and a covalently bound flavin adenine dinucleotide prosthetic group. Subunit B contains three iron-sulphur centres. The menaquinol-oxidizing subunit C consists of five membrane-spanning, primarily helical segments and binds two haem b molecules. On the basis of the structure, we propose a pathway of electron transfer from the dihaem cytochrome b to the site of fumarate reduction and a mechanism of fumarate reduction. The relative orientations of the soluble and membrane-embedded subunits of succinate:quinone oxidoreductases appear to be unique.     

A Cu(I)-semiquinone state in substrate-reduced amine oxidases.

The role of copper in copper-containing amine oxidases has long been a source of debate and uncertainty. Numerous electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) experiments, including rapid freeze-quench studies, have failed to detect changes in the copper oxidation state in the presence of substrate amines. One suggestion that copper reduction might occur, has never been confirmed. Copper amine oxidases contain another cofactor, recently identified as 6-hydroxydopa quinone (topa quinone), which is reduced by substrates. Copper has been implicated in the reoxidation of the substrate-reduced enzyme, but the failure to detect any copper redox change has led to proposals that Cu(II) acts as a Lewis acid, that it has an indirect role in catalysis, or that it serves a structural role. We present evidence for the generation of a Cu(I)-semiquinone state by substrate reduction of several amine oxidases under anaerobic conditions, and suggest that the Cu(I)-semiquinone may be the catalytic intermediate that reacts directly with oxygen.     

Bis-methionine axial ligation of haem in bacterioferritin from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The iron-containing bacterioferritins contain the protoporphyrin IX haem group. It has been established that Escherichia coli cytochrome b1, cytochrome b557 and bacterioferritin are identical. The optical spectra at room temperature of the haem group show it to be predominantly low-spin in both the ferrous and ferric states. The nature of the axial ligands binding the haem group to the polypeptide has, however, remained unknown. Low-spin, bis-coordinate haem centres in proteins typically have a role in rapid electron transfer as redox changes at the metal ion lead to little structural rearrangement. There are only four amino acids with side-chains that have ligand field strengths sufficient to generate the low-spin state of haem, namely, histidine, lysine, methionine and cysteine. Hence there are, potentially, ten different pairs of these four ligands which could be discovered in electron transfer haemoproteins. To date only three have been established with certainty. They are bis-histidine, as in mammalian cytochrome b5, methionine-histidine, typified by cytochrome c and lysine-histidine, recently recognized by spectroscopic methods in cytochrome f. Here we report the electron paramagnetic resonance and near infrared magnetic circular dichroism spectra of the oxidized state of Ps. aeruginosa bacterioferritin which enable the axial ligands to be identified as the thioether side chains of two methionine residues, a ligation scheme not previously reported for haem in any protein.     

Novel thioether bond revealed by a 1.7 A crystal structure of galactose oxidase

Galactose oxidase is an extracellular enzyme secreted by the fungus Dactylium dendroides. It is monomeric, with a relative molecular mass of 68,000, catalyses the stereospecific oxidation of a broad range of primary alcohol substrates and possesses a unique mononuclear copper site essential for catalysing a two-electron transfer reaction during the oxidation of primary alcohols to corresponding aldehydes. Recent evidence arguing against a Cu(III)-Cu(I) couple implies the existence of a second redox-active site proposed to involve pyrroloquinoline quinone or a tyrosine radical. We now report the crystal structure of galactose oxidase at 1.7 A resolution. This reveals a unique structural feature at the copper site with a novel thioether bond linking Cys 228 and Tyr 272 in a stacking interaction with Trp 290. We propose that these molecular components stabilize the protein free-radical species essential for catalysis and thus provide a 'built-in' secondary cofactor. This feature may represent a new mechanism for mediating electron transfer in metalloenzymes in the absence of exogenous cofactors.     

Experimental evidence for sub-3-fs charge transfer from an aromatic adsorbate to a semiconductor

The ultrafast timescale of electron transfer processes is crucial to their role in many biological systems and technological devices. In dye-sensitized solar cells, the electron transfer from photo-excited dye molecules to nanostructured semiconductor substrates needs to be sufficiently fast to compete effectively against loss processes and thus achieve high solar energy conversion efficiencies. Time-resolved laser techniques indicate an upper limit of 20 to 100 femtoseconds for the time needed to inject an electron from a dye into a semiconductor, which corresponds to the timescale on which competing processes such as charge redistribution and intramolecular thermalization of excited states occur. Here we use resonant photoemission spectroscopy, which has previously been used to monitor electron transfer in simple systems with an order-of-magnitude improvement in time resolution, to show that electron transfer from an aromatic adsorbate to a TiO(2) semiconductor surface can occur in less than 3 fs. These results directly confirm that electronic coupling of the aromatic molecule to its substrate is sufficiently strong to suppress competing processes.     

Keggin型铬取代杂多离子PW11O39Cr(Ⅲ)(H2O)4-的电化学性质

 用循环伏安、交流伏安和交流阻抗法详细研究了Keggin型铬取代杂多离子PW₁₁Cr(Ⅲ)O^4-₃₉(PW₁₁Cr) 的电化学性质。循环伏安扫描表明,1.0 mmol·L^-1 PW₁₁Cr的H₃PO₄-HAc-H₃BO₃ 缓冲溶液(pH2.16)在玻碳电极上有三对氧化-还原波,发生在1.30/0.631 V处的准可逆波属于Cr(Ⅲ)/Cr(Ⅴ)电对的双电子氧化-还原响应,而位于-0.553/-0.505 V和-0.782/-0.725 V处的两对可逆波则对应于W-O骨架的双电子还原-氧化响应。PW₁₁Cr三对氧化-还原波的峰电位皆与溶液的pH有关,随着溶液pH的增大,峰电位负移,峰电流降低,阴极和阳极的峰电位差增大,电极过程的可逆性降低。由第一个W O骨架还原波的峰电流与电位扫描速率平方根的关系得到PW₁₁Cr在H₃PO₄-HAc-H₃BO₃ 溶液(pH 2.16)中的扩散系数为4.4×10^-6 cm²·s^-1。交流阻抗谱表明,Cr(Ⅲ)/Cr(Ⅴ)电对的电极过程受异相电荷传递动力学控制,由相角与频率的关系得到其动力学参数k^o 为0.67 cm·s^-1;而W-O骨架的两个电极过程则受扩散控制。PW₁₁Cr的电极过程存在吸附步骤。     

Influence of Cr3+ concentration on the electrochemical behavior of the anolyte for vanadium redox flow batteries

The composition of electrolyte affects to a great extent the electrochemical performance of vanadium redox flow batteries(VRB).The effects of Cr3+ concentration in the anolyte on the electrode process of V(V)/V(IV) couple have been investigated by cyclic voltammetry(CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS).It was found that Cr3+ causes no side reactions,but affects the electrochemical performance of V(V)/V(IV) redox reaction,including the reaction activity,the reversibility of electrode reaction,the diffusivity of vanadium ions,the interface film impedance,and the electrode reaction impedance.The experimental results show that Cr3+ within a certain concentration range can improve the reversibility of electrode reaction and the diffusion of vanadium ions.With the Cr3+ concentration increasing from 0 to 0.30 g L-1,the reversibility of V(V)/V(IV) reaction increases,while the diffusion resistance decreases.Correspondingly,the diffusion coefficient of vanadium ions increases from(5.48-6.77) × 10-7 to(6.82-8.44) × 10-7 cm2 s-1,an increase of ～24%.However,the diffusion resistance increases and the diffusion coefficient decreases when Cr3+ concentration is over 0.30 g L-1,while the impedances of the interface,the film as well as the charge transfer increase continuously.As a result,Cr3+ with a certain concentration improves the diffusion and mass transfer process,but the resistances of the film,the interface,and the charge transfer rise.Furthermore,Cr3+ concentration of no more than 0.10 g L-1 has few effect on the electrode reaction process,and that of no more than 0.30 g L-1 is favorable to the diffusion of vanadium ions.     

Reduction of cytochrome c oxidase by a second electron leads to proton translocation

Cytochrome c oxidase, the terminal enzyme of cellular respiration in mitochondria and many bacteria, reduces O(2) to water. This four-electron reduction process is coupled to translocation (pumping) of four protons across the mitochondrial or bacterial membrane; however, proton pumping is poorly understood. Proton pumping was thought to be linked exclusively to the oxidative phase, that is, to the transfer of the third and fourth electron. Upon re-evaluation of these data, however, this proposal has been questioned, and a transport mechanism including proton pumping in the reductive phase--that is, during the transfer of the first two electrons--was suggested. Subsequently, additional studies reported that proton pumping during the reductive phase can occur, but only when it is immediately preceded by an oxidative phase. To help clarify the issue we have measured the generation of the electric potential across the membrane, starting from a defined one-electron reduced state. Here we show that a second electron transfer into the enzyme leads to charge translocation corresponding to pumping of one proton without necessity for a preceding turnover.     

基于氨基作为质子转移桥梁的赖氨酸分子手性转变机理

采用密度泛函理论的B3LYP方法和微扰理论的MP2方法, 考察赖氨酸分子基于氨基作为质子转移桥梁的手性转变机理以及水分子和羟基自由基对氢迁移反应的催化作用. 结果表明, 赖氨酸分子手性转变有2个通道a和b, 通道a为主反应通道, 决速步骤裸反应Gibbs自由能垒为252.6 kJ/mol, 2个水分子构成的链以及羟基自由基和水分子构成的链使通道a决速步骤的自由能垒分别降为119.5,98.5 kJ/mol. 表明水分子和羟自由基对H迁移反应有较好的催化作用, 生命体内的羟基自由基是导致左旋赖氨酸旋光异构的主要原因.     

聚3-甲氧基噻吩对二巯基噻二唑的电化学改性的研究

研究了聚3-甲氧基噻吩(PMOT)膜电极在2,5-二巯基-1,3,4-噻二唑(DMcT)溶液中电化学处理或浸泡后的循环伏安(CV)曲线的变化规律,并研究了一定量的PMOT对DMcT充放电性能的影响。实验结果表明,PMOT膜电极在DMcT溶液中进行电化学处理或浸泡过程可使DMcT进入PMOT膜内部与PMOT形成复合物。PMOT对DMcT的电化学催化作用可能和二者之间形成的电子给体-受体复合物有关.该复合物的电化学氧化还原特性不同于PMOT和DMcT,其氧化还原反应速率和可逆性均优于DMcT,且经过PMOT催化改性后,DMcT的放电容量得到了增加,循环性能有了很大改善。