PubMed1981
The dynamic behavior of various types of cytochromes c in the redox reaction with iron hexacyanides was studied using a temperature-jump method in order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of the redox reaction of cytochromes with their oxidoreductants. Transmittance after the temperature jump changed through a single exponential decay for all cytochromes investigated. Under a constant concentration of anion, the redox reaction of various types of cytochrome c with iron hexacyanides was analyzed according to the scheme: (see formula in text) where C(III) and C(II) are ferric and ferrous cytochromes, respectively, Fe(III) and Fe(II) are ferri- and ferrocyanides, respectively, C(III) . Fe(II) is the ferricytochrome-ferrocyanide complex and C(II) . Fe(III) is the ferrocytochrome-ferricyanide complex. When step B is slower than the other two steps A and C, tau-1 can be represented approximately as (see formula in text) where the bar over the variables denotes the equilibrium value. In a large excess of ferrocyanide against cytochrome, we can estimate kappa 2, kappa-2, K1 and K3 independently. In the case of horse cytochrome c at 18 degrees C in 0.1 M phosphate buffer at pH 7 with 0.3 M KNO3, the estimated parameters are kappa 2 = 100 +/- 50 S-1, kappa-2 = (3.5 +/- 1.0) . 10(3) S-1, K1 = 15 +/- 7 M-1 and K3 = (8.5 +/- 1.5). 10(-4) M. From the same experiments for seven cytochromes (cytochrome c from horse, tuna, Candida krusei, Saccharomyces oviformis, Rhodospirillum rubrum cytochrome c2, Spirulina platensis cytochrome c-554 and Thermus thermophilus cytochrome c-552), the following results can be deduced. (1) Each parameter defined in the scheme above (kappa 2, kappa-2, K1, K3) diverged beyond the error range. Above all, kappa 2 values of cytochromes c-554 and c-552 are as large as 1 . 10(4) S-1 and much larger than those for the other cytochromes (to 50 approx. 700 S-1). (2) The variance of kappa 2K1 and kappa-2/K3 are relatively less than the variances of individual parameters (kappa 2, kappa-2, K1 and K3), which suggests that the values of kappa 2K1 and kappa-2/K3 have been conserved during the course of evolution.