Analysis of the ionization constants and heats of ionization of reduced and oxidized horse heart cytochrome c

A denaturation-induced proton-uptake study of horse ferricytochrome c

The observation that 6 M-urea denatures horse ferricytochrome c in the pH range 4-6, but not horse ferrocytochrome c, has been exploited to determine the denaturation-induced proton uptake of ferricytochrome c. This is related to the pKa values of ionizable groups buried within the native protein. The data indicate that one of the haem propionic acid substituents of ferricytochrome c has a pKa of less than 4.5, whereas the other has a pKa of greater than 9.

Ionization of tyrosine residues in horse-heart ferricytochrome c and its guanidinated and acetylated-guanidinated derivatives

Spectrophotometric titration curves were obtained at 242 nm for native and fully guanidinated horse-heart ferricytochrome c. The cytochrome c data were fit over the pH range 9-12 (I = 0.35) by a theoretical curve with pK' values of 10.35 and 11.70. The slope of the experimental data increases sharply above pH 12.5 suggesting that two tyrosine residues with pK' values greater than 12.5 are exposed by conformation change. The guanidinated cytochrome c data after correction for the alkaline spin-state transition were fit over the entire pH range 9-13.6 (I = 0.35) by a theoretical curve with pK' values 10.37, 10.78, 11.50, and 13.60. These results along with viscosity measurements indicate that the unfolding transition occurs at higher pH in the guanidinated derivative. N-Acetylimidazole was used to acetylate specific tyrosyl groups of guanidinated cytochrome c. Assignments of acetylated tyrosine residues were confirmed by peptide mapping of 14C-labelled derivatives. Spectrophotometric titrations with rapid data acquisition of two monoacetylated derivatives allowed assignments of pK'1 (10.37) to Tyr-67 and pK'4 (13.60) to Tyr-97. The basis for the large differences in acidity and chemical reactivity of these two residues is not obvious from the crystallographic structure and may arise from differences in solvent access due to motions of the polypeptide chain.

Use of the twin-cell differential titration calorimeter for binding studies. I. EDTA and its calcium complex

The use of a twin-cell differential titration calorimeter is described which utilizes small volumes (1-3 ml) of modest concentrations of materials (0.001-0.01 M) and yields data of good precision. Operation is controlled by a microprocessor which regulates and controls the addition of reagents and collects and displays the data as time, temperature in volts, and the pH. Corrections for the titration of water are applied to the potentiometric data, and the thermal data are corrected for the initial temperature-time baseline, the changes in heat capacity, and the heat loss (or gain) to the external environment. Finally, the thermal signal is corrected for the heat derived from the formation of water due to the free hydrogen or hydroxyl ions present. The corrected data as pH, groups titrated and delta HT (kcal/mol) can then be used to obtain the parameters pK' and delta Hi involved with the equilibria by curve-fitting the observed data. The system has been applied to the ionization of EDTA and its calcium complex. The ionization constants, the heats of ionization, the stoichiometry of binding and the heat of binding have been determined and demonstrated to be in agreement with published values.