Vibronic energy map and excited state vibrational characteristics of magnesium myoglobin determined by energy-selective fluorescence

Infrared absorption study of the heme pocket dynamics of carbonmonoxyheme proteins

The temperature dependencies of the infrared absorption CO bands of carboxy complexes of horseradish peroxidase (HRP(CO)) in glycerol/water mixture at pH 6.0 and 9.3 are interpreted using the theory of optical absorption bandshape. The bands' anharmonic behavior is explained assuming that there is a higher-energy set of conformational substates (CSS(h)), which are populated upon heating and correspond to the protein substates with disordered water molecules in the heme pocket. Analysis of the second moments of the CO bands of the carboxy complexes of myoglobin (Mb(CO)) and hemoglobin (Hb(CO)), and of HRP(CO) with benzohydroxamic acid (HRP(CO)+BHA), shows that the low energy CSS(h) exists also in the open conformation of Mb(CO), where the heme pocket is spacious enough to accommodate a water molecule. In the HRP(CO)+BHA and closed conformations of Mb(CO) and Hb(CO), the heme pocket is packed with BHA and different amino acids, the CSS(h) has much higher energy and is hardly populated even at the highest temperatures. Therefore only motions of these amino acids contribute to the band broadening. These motions are linked to the protein surface and frozen in the glassy matrix, whereas in the liquid solvent they are harmonic. Thus the second moment of the CO band is temperature-independent in glass and is proportional to the temperature in liquid. The temperature dependence of the second moment of the CO peak of HRP(CO) in the trehalose glass exhibits linear coupling to an oscillator. This oscillator can be a moving water molecule locked in the heme pocket in the whole interval of temperatures or a trehalose molecule located in the heme pocket.

The enzyme horseradish peroxidase is less compressible at higher pressures

Fluorescence line-narrowing (FLN) spectroscopy at 10 K was used to study the effect of high pressure through the prosthetic group in horseradish peroxidase (HRP), which was Mg-mesoporphyrin (MgMP) replacing the heme of the enzyme. The same measurement was performed on MgMP in a solid-state amorphous organic matrix, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Series of FLN spectra were registered to determine the (0, 0) band shape through the inhomogeneous distribution function (IDF). In the range of 0-2 GPa a red-shift of the IDF was determined, and yielded the isothermal compressibility of MgMP-HRP as 0.066 GPa(-1), which is significantly smaller than that found earlier as 0.106 GPa(-1) by fine-tuning the pressure in the range up to 1.1 MPa. The vibrational frequencies also shifted with pressure increase, as expected. The compressibility in the DMSO matrix was smaller, 0.042 GPa(-1), both when the pressure was applied at room temperature before cooling to 10 K, or at 10 K. At 200 K or above, the bimodal (0, 0) band shape in DMSO showed a population conversion under pressure that was not observed at or below 150 K. A significant atomic rearrangement was estimated from the volume change, 3.3 +/- 0.7 cm(3)/mol upon conversion. The compressibility in proteins and in amorphous solids seems not to significantly depend on the temperature and in the protein it decreases toward higher pressures.

Fluorescence line narrowing applied to the study of proteins

Fluorescence line narrowing is a high resolution spectroscopic technique that uses low temperature and laser excitation to optically select specific subpopulations from the inhomogeneously broadened absorption band of the sample. When applied to the study of fluorescent groups in proteins one can obtain vibronically resolved spectra, which can be analyzed to give information on spectral line shapes, vibrational energies of both the ground and excited state molecule, and the inhomogeneous distribution function of the electronic transitions. These parameters reveal information about the chromophoric prosthetic group and the protein matrix and are functions of geometric strains and local electric fields imposed by the protein. Examples of the use of fluorescence line narrowing are discussed in investigations of heme proteins, photosynthetic systems and tryptophan-containing proteins.