'Pulsed' cytochrome oxidase may be produced without the advent of dioxygen.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Brunori.
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The catalytic properties of pulsed and resting cytochrome c oxidase (ferrocytochrome c: oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.9.3.1), expressed in terms of a minimal kinetic scheme and simulated by numerical computations, were successfully described. A two-state model, in which the relative amounts of the enzyme present in each conformation are regulated by the rates of electron flux and O2 binding on one side and the interconversion rates on the other, accounts for the activation of cytochrome c oxidase during turnover.
The functional properties of hemoglobins from Triturus cristatus carnifex have been characterized both from an equilibrium and a kinetic point of view. A special attention has been given to the effect of organic phosphates in view of their role in the modulation of the hemoglobin function. Under stripped conditions newt hemoglobins display a negative Bohr effect which becomes much less pronounced in the presence of 0.2 M inorganic phosphates. The effect of organic phosphates involves not only a drop in the O2 affinity but also a large change in the shape of the O2 Bohr effect which becomes markedly positive in the presence of myo-inositol hexakis(phosphate). The experimental data reported make it possible to give a complete picture of the functional behaviour of newt hemoglobins, making a contribution to clarifying the dependence of the sign of the Bohr effect on the acclimatization temperature of the animals that has been previously reported [Morpurgo, G., Battaglia, P. A. and Leggio, T. (1970) Nature (Lond.) 225, 76--77].
Panulirus interruptus hemocyanin exhibits a progressive decrease in oxygen affinity and a parallel loss of cooperativity with decrease in pH, resulting in an apparent loss of the oxygen-binding capacity of the protein. For a characterization of this system, oxygen-binding curves have been determined over the complete range of oxygen saturation, applying a special technique which involves high-pressure spectrophotometry. Although the oxygen-binding behavior as a function of pH is complex and cannot be described within the frame of a simple two-state Monod-Wyman-Changeux model, the observed Root effect is clearly related to a progressive stabilization of a low oxygen affinity state of the protein and functional heterogeneity is not apparent.
The present paper reports a spectroscopic and kinetic study of the reaction with oxygen and carbon monoxide of (a) the abnormal hemoglobin Zürich (beta 63, E7 His leads to Arg), (b) its isolated abnormal chains (beta ZH), and (c) a reconstituted hybrid containing cobalt instead of iron on the normal alpha chains (Co alpha)2-(Fe beta ZH)2. The abnormal beta ZH chains, isolated from hemoglobin Zürich (HbZH) tetramer, display very peculiar spectral properties in the Soret region which were determined, for the oxy and deoxy derivatives, by kinetic difference spectra. The spectral properties of abnormal chains are maintained in the native and reconstituted hybrid tetramer. The rate constants for CO and O2 binding to isolated beta ZH chains were compared with those of the normal alpha and beta chains, It is confirmed that the CO combination rate constant to beta ZH is much higher than that of normal chains, whereas that for O2 is similar for the normal and abnormal chains. The CO binding rate constant for Fe beta ZH chains in the hybrid tetramer is the same as in the native HbZH molecule, i.e. much higher than that of normal chain. The new data are fully consistent with the sequential mechanism for CO binding previously proposed by us; on the other hand, on the basis of the spectral and kinetic results, and contrary to what has been suggested by other authors, a sequential binding of the ligand is excluded in the case of O2.
The magnetic susceptibilities of solutions of deoxyhemoglobin Zürich and deoxyhemoglobin A have been found quite close together, in contrast to previous findings. Therefore, any magnetic inequivalence between alpha- and beta-hemes must be confined to finer details.
The carbon monoxide binding kinetics of the isolated trout Hb I has been investigated by flash photolysis at various temperatures, from approximately 20 degrees to 72 degrees C. The time course of recombination has been quantitatively analyzed with a simple two-state allosteric model, making use of the thermodynamic data previously obtained. These new experiments and their analysis show that a simple two-state kinetic model is adequate, in the case of trout Hb I, to describe quantitatively the time course of CO binding at all temperatures. Moreover, we show that temperature can be used to perturb the quaternary conformational equilibrium, the high affinity state of the molecule (R) being progressively more populated at higher temperatures.
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The effect of carbon monoxide on the luminescence properties of Helix pomatia alpha-hemocyanin and Panulirus interruptus hemocyanin has been studied. These proteins, when saturated with carbon monoxide, show, besides the intrinsic fluorescence arising from the aromatic amino acid residues, emission in the visible region with a maximum between 540 and 560 nm. Results of carbon monoxide titration experiments and data from absorption and excitation-emission spectra provide convincing evidence that the observed emission originates from a fluorescent copper(I)-carbon monoxide complex, and this emission is interpreted as charge-transfer luminescence.
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Determinations of iron content and dry-weight measurements on samples of Pseudomonas cytochrome oxidase were coupled with sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel-electrophoresis studies of both the native protein and covalently cross-linked oligomers in order to estimate the enzyme's molecular weight and spectral absorption coefficients. A value of epsilon(ox.) (410)=282x10(3) litre.mol(-1).cm(-1) was calculated for a dimeric protein molecule having a total molecular weight of 122000 (based on iron analysis). Steady-state kinetic observations of the enzyme-catalysed oxidation of reduced azurin by nitrite indicated a marked increase in enzyme inactivation as the pH was raised from 5.7 to 7.2. Since NO, a product of the nitrite reductase activity of Pseudomonas cytochrome oxidase, is known to bind to the enzyme, a study was undertaken to try to assess the potential of NO as a product inhibitor. Investigations showed that samples of the oxidized protein at pH values 4, 5 and 6 bound NO to both haem c and d(1) components, but oxidized enzyme samples at pH7 and above formed their reduced ligand-bound forms when placed under an atmosphere of the gas. Ascorbate-reduced enzyme samples at pH4, 5, 6 and 7 were also found to bind NO at both haem components, although at pH7 the rate of haem c binding was very slow. At pH8 and 9 only the ferrohaem d(1) bound NO. Titration experiments on the reduced protein over the pH range 5-7, with nitrite as a precursor of NO, showed that the haem d(1) had a much higher affinity than the haem c: experiments at pH5.2 and 5.9 with NO-equilibrated solutions revealed the same pattern of behaviour with the oxidized enzyme.
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