Conversion of CuA to a type II copper in cytochrome c oxidase

Cytochrome c oxidase: chemistry of a molecular machine

The plethora of proposed chemical models attempting to explain the proton pumping reactions catalyzed by the CcO complex, especially the number of recent models, makes it clear that the problem is far from solved. Although we have not discussed all of the models proposed to date, we have described some of the more detailed models in order to illustrate the theoretical concepts introduced at the beginning of this section on proton pumping as well as to illustrate the rich possibilities available for effecting proton pumping. It is clear that proton pumping is effected by conformational changes induced by oxidation/reduction of the various redox centers in the CcO complex. It is for this reason that the CcO complex is called a redox-linked proton pump. The conformational changes of the proton pump cycle are usually envisioned to be some sort of ligand-exchange reaction arising from unstable geometries upon oxidation/reduction of the various redox centers. However, simple geometrical rearrangements, as in the Babcock and Mitchell models are also possible. In any model, however, hydrogen bonds must be broken and reformed due to conformational changes that result from oxidation/reduction of the linkage site during enzyme turnover. Perhaps the most important point emphasized in this discussion, however, is the fact that proton pumping is a directed process and it is electron and proton gating mechanisms that drive the proton pump cycle in the forward direction. Since many of the models discussed above lack effective electron and/or proton gating, it is clear that the major difficulty in developing a viable chemical model is not formulating a cyclic set of protein conformational changes effecting proton pumping (redox linkage) but rather constructing the model with a set of physical constraints so that the proposed cycle proceeds efficiently as postulated. In our discussion of these models, we have not been too concerned about which electron of the catalytic cycle was entering the site of linkage, but merely whether an ET to the binuclear center played a role. However, redox linkage only occurs if ET to the activated binuclear center is coupled to the proton pump. Since all of the models of proton pumping presented here, with the exception of the Rousseau expanded model and the Wikström model, have a maximum stoichiometry of 1 H+/e-, they inadequately explain the 2 H+/e- ratio for the third and fourth electrons of the dioxygen reduction cycle (see Section V.B). One way of interpreting this shortfall of protons is that the remaining protons are pumped by an as yet undefined indirectly coupled mechanism. In this scenario, the site of linkage could be coupled to the pumping of one proton in a direct fashion and one proton in an indirect fashion for a given electron. For a long time, it was assumed that at least some elements of such an indirect mechanism reside in subunit III. While recent evidence argues against the involvement of subunit III in the proton pump, subunit III may still participate in a regulatory and/or structural capacity (Section II.E). Attention has now focused on subunits I and II in the search for residues intimately involved in the proton pump mechanism and/or as part of a proton channel. In particular, the role of some of the highly conserved residues of helix VIII of subunit I are currently being studied by site directed mutagenesis. In our opinion, any model that invokes heme alpha 3 or CuB as the site of linkage must propose a very effective means by which the presumedly fast uncoupling ET to the dioxygen intermediates is prevented. It is difficult to imagine that ET over the short distance from heme alpha 3 or CuB to the dioxygen intermediate requires more than 1 ns. In addition, we expect the conformational changes of the proton pump to require much more than 1 ns (see Section V.B).

Q-band electron nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) and X-band EPR of the sulfobetaine 12 heat-treated cytochrome c oxidase complex

Heat treatment of the bovine cytochrome c oxidase complex in the zwitterionic detergent sulfobetaine 12 (SB-12) results in loss of subunit III and the appearance of a type II copper center as characterized by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy. Previous authors (Nilsson, T., Copeland, R. A., Smith, P. A., and Chan, S. I. (1988) Biochemistry 27, 8254-8260) have interpreted this type II copper center as a modified version of the CuA site. By using electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopy, it is found that the CuA proton and nitrogen resonances remain present in the SB-12 heat-treated enzyme and that three new nitrogen resonances appear having hyperfine coupling constants consistent with histidine ligation. These hyperfine coupling constants correlate well with those recently found for the CuB histidines from the cytochrome aa(3)-600 quinol oxidase from Bacillus subtilis (Fann, Y. C., Ahmed, I., Blackburn, N. J., Boswell, J. S., Verkhovskaya, M. L., Hoffman, B. M., and Wikstr9om, M. (1995) Biochemistry 34, 10245-10255). In addition, the total EPR-detectable copper concentration per enzyme molecule approximately doubles upon SB-12 heat treatment. Finally, the observed type II copper EPR spectrum is virtually indistinguishable from the EPR spectrum of CuB of the as-isolated cytochrome bo3 complex from Escherichia coli. These data indicate that the type II copper species that appears results from a breaking of the strong antiferromagnetic coupling of the heme a3-CuB binuclear center.

Perturbation of the CuA site in cytochrome-c oxidase of Paracoccus denitrificans by replacement of Met227 with isoleucine

Subunit II of cytochrome-c oxidase contains a redox centre, CuA, with unusual spectroscopic properties; this site consists of two copper atoms and acts as the entry point for electrons from cytochrome c. We have constructed a site-directed mutant of cytochrome-c oxidase from Paracoccus denitrificans in which the CuA site has been disturbed by replacement of Met227 with isoleucine. The purified, fully assembled enzyme complex has been investigated with various techniques including metal analysis, EPR and visible spectroscopies, steady-state and fast kinetics. The stoichiometry of the metals in the enzyme remains unchanged but a clear perturbation of the CuA site can be observed in the EPR and near-infrared optical spectra. It is concluded that in the mutant CuA is still binuclear but that the two nuclei are no longer equivalent, converting the delocalized [Cu(1.5)....Cu(1.5)] centre of the wild type into a localized [Cu(I)....Cu(II)] system. Changes in the overall kinetics of the mutant are correlated with a diminished electron transfer rate between CuA and heme alpha.

Probing protein-cofactor interactions in the terminal oxidases by second derivative spectroscopy: study of bacterial enzymes with cofactor substitutions and heme A model compounds

Second derivative absorption spectra are reported for the aa3-cytochrome c oxidase from bovine cardiac mitochondria, the aa3-600 ubiquinol oxidase from Bacillus subtilis, the ba3-cytochrome c oxidase from Thermus thermophilis, and the aco-cytochrome c oxidase from Bacillus YN-2000. Together these enzymes provide a range of cofactor combinations that allow us to unequivocally identify the origin of the 450-nm absorption band of the terminal oxidases as the 6-coordinate low-spin heme, cytochrome a. The spectrum of the aco-cytochrome c oxidase further establishes that the split Soret band of cytochrome a, with features at 443 and 450 nm, is common to all forms of the enzyme containing ferrocytochrome a and does not depend on ligand occupancy at the other heme cofactor as previously suggested. To test the universality of this Soret band splitting for 6-coordinate low-spin heme A systems, we have reconstituted purified heme A with the apo forms of the heme binding proteins, hemopexin, histidine-proline-rich glycoprotein and the H64V/V68H double mutant of human myoglobin. All 3 proteins bound the heme A as a (bis)histidine complex, as judged by optical and resonance Raman spectroscopy. In the ferroheme A forms, none of these proteins displayed evidence of Soret band splitting. Heme A-(bis)imidazole in aqueous detergent solution likewise failed to display Soret band splitting. When the cyanide-inhibited mixed-valence form of the bovine enzyme was partially denatured by chemical or thermal means, the split Soret transition of cytochrome a collapsed into a single band at 443 nm.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Characterization of reductant-induced, tryptophan fluorescence changes in cytochrome oxidase

We have measured the steady-state tryptophan fluorescence spectrum of cytochrome oxidase in its oxidized and fully reduced states. Reduction of the oxidized enzyme by sodium dithionite causes an apparent shift in the fluorescence emission maximum from 328 nm, in the oxidized enzyme, to 348 nm, in the reduced enzyme. This spectroscopic change has been observed previously and assigned to a redox-linked, conformational change in cytochrome oxidase [Copeland, R. A., Smith, P. A., & Chan, S. I. (1987) Biochemistry 26, 7311-7316]. When dithionite-reduced enzyme sits in an open cuvette, the enzyme returns to the oxidized state, and the fluorescence maximum shifts back to 328 nm. However, the time course of the fluorescence change does not follow the redox state of the enzyme, monitored spectrophotometrically at 445,605, and 820 nm, but follows the disappearance of dithionite, which absorbs at 315 nm. Moreover, when the fluorescence emission spectrum of the dithionite-reduced enzyme is corrected for the absorbance due to dithionite, the fluorescence maximum is found 2 nm blue shifted, relative to that of the oxidized enzyme, at 326 nm. This dithionite-induced, red-shifted steady-state tryptophan fluorescence is also seen with the non-heme-containing enzyme carboxypeptidase A. The tryptophan emission spectrum of untreated carboxypeptidase A is at 332 nm, whereas in the presence of dithionite the emission spectrum of carboxypeptidase A is at 350 nm. When corrected for the absorbance of dithionite, the tryptophan emission maximum is at 332 nm. We have also used the photoreductant 3,10-dimethyl-5-deazaisoalloxazine (deazaflavin) to reduce cytochrome oxidase.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The nature of CuA in cytochrome c oxidase

Kroneck et al. [(1988) FEBS Lett. 242, 70-74] have recently suggested, on the basis of a comparison with the EPR properties of nitrous oxide reductase, that cytochrome c oxidase contains a mixed-valence binuclear copper site, and that this is responsible for the EPR spectrum generally ascribed to CuA. Here we question this hypothesis in view of a multitude of analytical and spectroscopic data available. We maintain that a mononuclear Cu site with two cysteine sulfur and two imidazole nitrogen atoms as ligands is consistent with the current experimental information on the CuA site.