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Zawartość zarchiwizowana w dniu 2022-12-23

Intramolecular electron transfer in cytochrome c and complex of cytochrome c with cytochrome oxidase

Cel

The proposal is aimed at studying the mechanism of intramolecular electron transfer in cytochrome c and in the complex of cytochrome c with cytochrome oxidase.
In the first phase of the work we are going to investigate the mechanism of intramolecular electron transfer in cytochrome c. The electron transfer will be initiated by an intensive pulse illumination of thiouredopyrene-trisulfonate (TUPS), a reaction that generates a strong reductant. The SH-modifying form of TUPS will be covalently attached to desired sites of cytochrome c, e.g. to SH-groups introduced into the protein by site directed mutagenesis. Intramolecular reduction of the heme iron by the excited form of the dye will be followed by transient absorption spectroscopy looking at heme reduction. The high yield of heme reduction and the ability to follow the reaction on time scales from hundreds of picoseconds to milliseconds will allow us to determine the rate constants of electron transfer with high level of accuracy and reliability. The dependence of the electron transfer rates on the distance between the heme and different sites on the protein surface will be analysed to estimate possible electron transfer pathways in cytochrome c.

With this knowledge at hand we will directionally replace by site-directed mutagenesis "non-conductive" amino acids with "conductive" ones and vice versa along calculated pathways, looking at the effect of replacement on the rate of electron transfer. The data we are going to accumulate will serve as experimental basis for understanding the role of protein structural elements in electron conductivity.
The second phase of the work will be devoted to the investigation of the electron transfer mechanism of cytochrome oxidase. To achieve this goal we will produce TUPS-cytochrome c derivatives, which are capable of undergoing fast (in less than 1 ms) self-reduction upon illumination, and also capable of forming functionally active complexes with cytochrome oxidase. We will use the knowledge accumulated in the first phase of the research for selecting "fast" derivatives. The derivatives will be prepared by the covalent attachment of SH-specific TUPS label to a singular cysteine residue introduced at desired sites of cytochrome c by site-directed mutagenesis. The time resolved kinetics of electron redistribution within the complex of TUPS-cytochrome c with cytochrome oxidase will be measured by recording transient difference spectra in a wide range of wavelengths on time scales from hundreds of picoseconds to milliseconds. The analysis of the spectral data by singular value decomposition with self-modeling, combined with a global exponential fitting procedure will yield the spectra of the intermediates involved in the electron transfer in cytochrome oxidase and the individual rate constants associated with the electron transfer steps.

The effect of cytochrome oxidase inhibitors (CN-, N3-) as well as the effect of pH on the individual rate constants will be studied.
The third phase of the work will be devoted to the investigation of the electrogenic mechanism of COX. We will employ TUPS-cytochrome c derivatives as efficient photoinduced electron donors and will utilize the unique electrometric approach developed by Professor achieve in A.N.Belozersky Institute of Moscow State University, for studying charge translocation in COX.

The main points to be addressed in these studies, regarding the electrogenic mechanism of the enzyme, are:
1. Electrogenic nature of CuA reduction by bound cytochrome c;
2. Coupling of heme a reduction with vectorial proton movement;
3. Kinetics of the electrogenic phase associated with electron transfer from CuA to heme a.

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Koordynator

Tel Aviv University
Wkład UE
Brak danych
Adres
Ramat Aviv
69978 Tel Aviv
Izrael

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Koszt całkowity
Brak danych

Uczestnicy (4)