Solution structure of Methylophilus methylotrophus cytochrome c": insights into the structural basis of haem-ligand detachment

Discovery of a functional, contracted heme-binding motif within a multiheme cytochrome

Anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing (anammox) bacteria convert nitrite and ammonium via nitric oxide (NO) and hydrazine into dinitrogen gas by using a diverse array of proteins, including numerous c-type cytochromes. Many new catalytic and spectroscopic properties of c-type cytochromes have been unraveled by studies on the biochemical pathways underlying the anammox process. The unique anammox intermediate hydrazine is produced by a multiheme cytochrome c protein, hydrazine synthase, through the comproportionation of ammonium and NO and the input of three electrons. It is unclear how these electrons are delivered to hydrazine synthase. Here, we report the discovery of a functional tetraheme c-type cytochrome from the anammox bacterium Kuenenia stuttgartiensis with a naturally-occurring contracted Cys-Lys-Cys-His (CKCH) heme-binding motif, which is encoded in the hydrazine synthase gene cluster. The purified tetraheme protein (named KsTH) exchanged electrons with hydrazine synthase. Complementary spectroscopic techniques revealed that this protein harbors four low-spin hexa-coordinated hemes with His/Lys (heme 1), His/Cys (heme 2), and two His/His ligations (hemes 3 and 4). A genomic database search revealed that c-type cytochromes with a contracted CXCH heme-binding motif are present throughout the bacterial and archaeal domains in the tree of life, suggesting that this heme recognition site may be employed by many different groups of microorganisms.

Analysis of conformational variation in macromolecular structural models

Experimental conditions or the presence of interacting components can lead to variations in the structural models of macromolecules. However, the role of these factors in conformational selection is often omitted by in silico methods to extract dynamic information from protein structural models. Structures of small peptides, considered building blocks for larger macromolecular structural models, can substantially differ in the context of a larger protein. This limitation is more evident in the case of modeling large multi-subunit macromolecular complexes using structures of the individual protein components. Here we report an analysis of variations in structural models of proteins with high sequence similarity. These models were analyzed for sequence features of the protein, the role of scaffolding segments including interacting proteins or affinity tags and the chemical components in the experimental conditions. Conformational features in these structural models could be rationalized by conformational selection events, perhaps induced by experimental conditions. This analysis was performed on a non-redundant dataset of protein structures from different SCOP classes. The sequence-conformation correlations that we note here suggest additional features that could be incorporated by in silico methods to extract dynamic information from protein structural models.

Highly selective ligand binding by Methylophilus methylotrophus cytochrome c''

Cytochrome c'' (cyt c'') from Methylophilus methylotrophus is unusual insofar as the heme has two axial histidine ligands in the oxidized form but one is detached when the protein is reduced. Despite cyt c'' having an axial site available for binding small ligands, we show here that only NO binds readily to the ferrous cyt c''. Binding of CO, as well as CN(-), on the other hand requires considerable structural reorganization, or reduction of the disulfide bridge close to the heme. Standard free energies for the binding of NO and CO reveal high selectivity of the ferrous cyt c'' for NO, indicating its putative physiological role. In this work, we characterize in detail the kinetics of NO binding and the structural features of the Fe(2+)-NO adduct by stopped-flow and resonance Raman spectroscopy, respectively.

Fluorescence lifetimes of tyrosine residues in cytochrome c'' as local probes to study protein unfolding

Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy was used to show that multiple tyrosine residues of a protein can serve as localized probes of structural changes during thermal unfolding. Cytochrome c'' from Methylophilus methylotrophus, which has four tyrosine residues, was chosen as a model protein. The procedure involved, first, the assignment of the experimental decay times to the tyrosine residues, followed by the interpretation of the changes in the decay times and pre-exponential coefficients with temperature. We found that the fluorescence decays of cytochrome c'' are double-exponential from 23 to 80 degrees C, with decay times much shorter than those of the parent compound N-acetyl-tyrosinamide; this quenching was ascribed to dipole-dipole energy transfer from the tyrosine residues to the heme. The tyrosine-heme distances (R) and theoretical decay times, tau(comp), were estimated for each tyrosine residue. The analysis of the simulated decay generated with tau(comp), showed that a double-exponential fit is sufficient to describe the four decay times with two pre-exponential coefficients close to values observed from the experimental decay. Therefore, the decay times at 23 degrees C could be assigned to the individual tyrosine residues as tau(1) to Tyr-10 and Tyr-23 (at 20.3 A) and tau(2) to Tyr-12 and Tyr-115 (at 12-14 A). On the basis of this assignment and MD simulations, the temperature dependence of the decay times and pre-exponential coefficients suggest that upon unfolding, Tyr-12 is displaced from the heme, with loss of the structure of alpha-helix I. Moreover, Tyr-115 remains close to the heme and the structure in this region of the protein is not altered significantly. Altogether the data support the view that the protein core, comprising the heme and the four alpha-helices II to V, is clearly more stable than the remaining region that includes alpha-helix I and the loop between residues 19-27.

Models of the membrane-bound cytochromes: mössbauer spectra of crystalline low-spin ferriheme complexes having axial ligand plane dihedral angles ranging from 0 degree to 90 degrees

Crystalline samples of four low-spin Fe(III) octaalkyltetraphenylporphyrinate and two low-spin Fe(III) tetramesitylporphyrinate complexes, all of which are models of the bis-histidine-coordinated cytochromes of mitochondrial complexes II, III, and IV and chloroplast complex b(6)f, and whose molecular structures and EPR spectra have been reported previously, have been investigated in detail by Mössbauer spectroscopy. The six complexes and the dihedral angles between axial ligand planes of each are [(TMP)Fe(1-MeIm)(2)]ClO(4) (0 degree), paral-[(OMTPP)Fe(1-MeIm)(2)]Cl (19.5 degrees), paral-[(TMP)Fe(5-MeHIm)(2)]ClO(4) (26 degrees, 30 degrees for two molecules in the unit cell whose EPR spectra overlap), [(OETPP)Fe(4-Me(2)NPy)(2)]Cl (70 degrees), perp-[(OETPP)Fe(1-MeIm)(2)]Cl (73 degrees), and perp-[(OMTPP)Fe(1-MeIm)(2)]Cl (90 degrees). Of these, the first three have been shown to exhibit normal rhombic EPR spectra, each with three clearly resolved g-values, while the last three have been shown to exhibit "large g(max)" EPR spectra at 4.2 K. It is found that the hyperfine coupling constants of the complexes are consistent with those reported previously for low-spin ferriheme systems, with the largest-magnitude hyperfine coupling constant, A(zz), being considerably smaller for the "parallel" complexes (400-540 kG) than for the strictly perpendicular complex (902 kG), A(xx) being negative for all six complexes, and A(zz) and A(xx) being of similar magnitude for the "parallel" complexes (for example, for [(TMP)Fe(1-MeIm)(2)]Cl, A(zz) = 400 kG, A(xx) = -400 kG). In all cases, A(yy) is small but difficult to estimate with accuracy. With results for six structurally characterized model systems, we find for the first time qualitative correlations of g(zz), A(zz), and DeltaE(Q) with axial ligand plane dihedral angle Deltavarphi.

Structural evidence for a proton transfer pathway coupled with haem reduction of cytochrome c″ from Methylophilus methylotrophus

The crystal structures of the oxidized and reduced forms of cytochrome c" from Methylophilus methylotrophus were solved from X-ray synchrotron data to atomic resolution. The overall fold of the molecule in the two redox states is very similar and is comparable to that of the oxygen-binding protein from the purple phototrophic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. However, significant modifications occur near the haem group, in particular the detachment from axial binding of His95 observed upon reduction as well as the adoption of different conformations of some protonatable residues that form a possible proton path from the haem pocket to the protein surface. These changes are associated with the previously well characterized redox-Bohr behaviour of this protein. Furthermore they provide a model for one of the presently proposed mechanisms of proton translocation in the much more complex protein cytochrome c oxidase.

Thermodynamic and choreographic constraints for energy transduction by cytochrome c oxidase

Cooperative effects are fundamental for electroprotonic energy transduction processes, crucial to sustain much of life chemistry. However, the primary cooperative mechanism by which transmembrane proteins couple the downhill transfer of electrons to the uphill activation (acidification) of protic groups is still a matter of great controversy. To understand cooperative processes fully, it is necessary to obtain the microscopic thermodynamic parameters of the functional centres and relate them to the relevant structural features, a task difficult to achieve for large proteins. The approach discussed here explores how this may be done by extrapolation from mechanisms used by simpler proteins operative in similar processes. The detailed study of small, soluble cytochromes performing electroprotonic activation has shown how they use anti-electrostatic effects to control the synchronous movement of charges. These include negative e(-)/H(+) (redox-Bohr effect) cooperativities. This capacity is the basis to discuss an unorthodox mechanism consistent with the available experimental data on the process of electroprotonic energy transduction performed by cytochrome c oxidase (CcO).

Solution structure of the mEGF/TGFalpha44-50 chimeric growth factor

The solution structure of the growth factor chimera mEGF/TGFalpha44-50 has been determined using an extended version of the dyana procedure for calculating structures from NMR data. The backbone fold and preferred orientation of the domains of the chimera are similar to those found in previous studies of EGF structures, and several H-bonds used as input constraints in those studies were found independently in the chimera. This shows that the modified activity of the chimera does not result from a major structural change. However, the improved precision of the structure presented here allows the origin of some unusual chemical shifts found in all of these compounds to be explained, as well as the results obtained from some site-specific mutants. Further studies of the properties of this chimeric growth factor should help to elucidate the mechanism(s) of hetero- and homodimerization of the c-erbB receptors.