Correlations between the Electronic Properties of Shewanella oneidensis Cytochrome c Nitrite Reductase (ccNiR) and Its Structure: Effects of Heme Oxidation State and Active Site Ligation

Authors

Natalia Stein, University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeeFollow
Daniel Love, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Evan T. Judd, Boston University
Sean J. Elliot, Boston University
Brian Bennett, Marquette UniversityFollow
A. Andrew Pacheco, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

6-23-2015

Publisher

American Chemical Society

Source Publication

Biochemistry

Source ISSN

0006-2960

Abstract

The electrochemical properties of Shewanella oneidensis cytochrome c nitrite reductase (ccNiR), a homodimer that contains five hemes per protomer, were investigated by UV–visible and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectropotentiometries. Global analysis of the UV–vis spectropotentiometric results yielded highly reproducible values for the heme midpoint potentials. These midpoint potential values were then assigned to specific hemes in each protomer (as defined in previous X-ray diffraction studies) by comparing the EPR and UV–vis spectropotentiometric results, taking advantage of the high sensitivity of EPR spectra to the structural microenvironment of paramagnetic centers. Addition of the strong-field ligand cyanide led to a 70 mV positive shift of the active site’s midpoint potential, as the cyanide bound to the initially five-coordinate high-spin heme and triggered a high-spin to low-spin transition. With cyanide present, three of the remaining hemes gave rise to distinctive and readily assignable EPR spectral changes upon reduction, while a fourth was EPR-silent. At high applied potentials, interpretation of the EPR spectra in the absence of cyanide was complicated by a magnetic interaction that appears to involve three of five hemes in each protomer. At lower applied potentials, the spectra recorded in the presence and absence of cyanide were similar, which aided global assignment of the signals. The midpoint potential of the EPR-silent heme could be assigned by default, but the assignment was also confirmed by UV–vis spectropotentiometric analysis of the H268M mutant of ccNiR, in which one of the EPR-silent heme’s histidine axial ligands was replaced with a methionine.

Comments

Accepted version. Biochemistry, Vol. 54, No. 24 (June 2015): 3749-3758. DOI. © American Chemical Society. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Stein, Natalia; Love, Daniel; Judd, Evan T.; Elliot, Sean J.; Bennett, Brian; and Pacheco, A. Andrew, "Correlations between the Electronic Properties of Shewanella oneidensis Cytochrome c Nitrite Reductase (ccNiR) and Its Structure: Effects of Heme Oxidation State and Active Site Ligation" (2015). Physics Faculty Research and Publications. 119.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/physics_fac/119