Methane monooxygenase (MMO) isolated from Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b consists of hydroxylase (MMOH), reductase (MMOR), and "B" (MMOB) protein components. MMOH contains two oxygen-bridged dinuclear iron clusters that are the sites of O2 activation and hydrocarbon oxidation. Each cluster can be stabilized in diferric [Fe(III).Fc(III)], mixed-valence [Fe(II).Fe(III)], and diferrous [Fe(II).Fe(II)] redox states. We have correlated the EPR spin quantitation of the S = 1/2 mixed-valence state with the system electrode potential to determine both formal redox potential values for MMOH at 4 degrees C: E1 degrees' = +76 +/- 15 mV and E2 degrees' = +21 +/- 15 mV (Em = +48 mV, 61% maximum mixed-valence state). Complementary Mössbauer studies of 57Fe-enriched MMOH allowed all three redox states to be quantitated simultaneously in individual samples and revealed that the distribution of redox states was in accord with the measured potential values. EPR spectra of partially reduced MMOH showed that the apparent midpoint potential values of MMOH-MMOR, MMOH-MMOR-MMOB, and MMOH-MMOR-MMOB-substrate complexes were slightly more positive than that of MMOH alone. In contrast, the MMOH-MMOB complex appeared to have a substantially more negative redox potential. The formal redox potential values of the latter complex were determined to be E1 degrees' = -52 +/- 15 mV and E2 degrees' = -115 +/- 15 mV, respectively, at 4 degrees C (Em = -84 mV, 65% maximum mixed-valence state). This negative 132-mV shift in the midpoint potential of MMOH coupled to MMOB binding suggests that MMOB binds approximately 10(4) more strongly to the diferric state of MMOH than to the diferrous state. Since the potential shift is strongly negative, and since a nearly constant separation between the two formal potential values of MMOH is maintained when MMOB binds, the role of the MMOB-MMOH complex must not be to thermodynamically stabilize the formation of the diferrous cluster which is the form that reacts with O2 during catalysis. However, MMOB binding may provide kinetic stabilization of the diferrous state and/or modulation of the interaction of MMOH with O2 and hydrocarbon substrates. Such roles may be effected through cyclic association and dissociation of the MMOB-MMOH complex as MMOH oscillates between redox states during catalysis, thereby dynamically altering the affinity of this complex.

It has been found that small amounts of free flavins greatly accelerate the photochemical reduction of flavoproteins both to the radical and fully reduced oxidation states. This catalytic effect has been shown to be due to the rapid photochemical reduction of the free flavin to its fully reduced state, followed by its reaction with the flavoprotein to yield flavoprotein radical and by its reaction with flavoprotein radical to yield fully reduced flavoprotein. Evidence is presented that the same route may occur with flavoproteins in the absence of added flavins. In this case the photoreduction is mediated by the small equilibrium concentration of free flavin coenzyme present in a flavorprotein solution. Hence, it is suggested that flavoprotein reduction with EDTA as photosubstrate does not involve an excited state of the holoprotein, nor contact of EDTA with the enzyme, but exchange of electrons between enzyme flavin and free reduced flavin.

Flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) is a common cofactor in redox proteins, and its reduction potentials are controlled by the protein environment. This regulation is mainly responsible for the versatile catalytic functions of flavoenzymes. In this article, we report computations of the reduction potentials of FAD in medium-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) and cholesterol oxidase (CHOX). In addition, the reduction potentials of lumiflavin in aqueous solution have also been computed. Using molecular dynamics and free-energy perturbation techniques, we obtained the free-energy changes for two-electron/two-proton as well as one-electron/one-proton addition steps. We employed a combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) potential, in which the flavin ring was represented by the self-consistent-charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) method, while the rest of the enzyme-solvent system was treated by classical force fields. The computed two-electron/two-proton reduction potentials for lumiflavin and the two enzyme-bound FADs are in reasonable agreement with experimental data. The calculations also yielded the pKa values for the one-electron reduced semiquinone (FH*) and the fully reduced hydroquinone (FH2) forms. The pKa of the FAD semiquinone in CHOX was found to be around 4, which is 4 units lower than that in the enzyme-free state and 2 units lower than that in MCAD; this supports the notion that oxidases have a greater ability than dehydrogenases to stabilize anionic semiquinones. In MCAD, the flavin ring interacts with four hydrophobic residues and has a significantly bent structure, even in the oxidized state. The present study shows that this bending of the flavin imparts a significant destabilization (approximately 5 kcal/mol) to the oxidized state. The reduction potential of lumiflavin was also computed using DFT (M06-L and B3LYP functionals with 6-31+G(d,p) basis set) with the SM6 continuum solvation model, and the results are in good agreement with results from explicit free-energy simulations, which supports the conclusion that the SCC-DFTB/MM computation is reasonably accurate for both 1e(-)/1H+ and 2e(-)/2H+ reduction processes. These results suggest that the first coupled electron-proton addition is stepwise for both the free and the two enzyme-bound flavins. In contrast, the second coupled electron-proton addition is also stepwise for the free flavin but is likely to be concerted when the flavin is bound to either the dehydrogenase or the oxidase enzyme.

A combination of structural, thermodynamic, and transient kinetic data on wild-type and mutant Anabaena vegetative cell ferredoxins has been used to investigate the nature of the protein-protein interactions leading to electron transfer from reduced ferredoxin to oxidized ferredoxin:NADP+ reductase (FNR). We have determined the reduction potentials of wild-type vegetative ferredoxin, heterocyst ferredoxin, and 12 site-specific mutants at seven surface residues of vegetative ferredoxin, as well as the one- and two-electron reduction potentials of FNR, both alone and in complexes with wild-type and three mutant ferredoxins. X-ray crystallographic structure determinations have been carried out for six of the ferredoxin mutants. None of the mutants showed significant structural changes in the immediate vicinity of the [2Fe-2S] cluster, despite large decreases in electron-transfer reactivity (for E94K and S47A) and sizable increases in reduction potential (80 mV for E94K and 47 mV for S47A). Furthermore, the relatively small changes in Calpha backbone atom positions which were observed in these mutants do not correlate with the kinetic and thermodynamic properties. In sharp contrast to the S47A mutant, S47T retains electron-transfer activity, and its reduction potential is 100 mV more negative than that of the S47A mutant, implicating the importance of the hydrogen bond which exists between the side chain hydroxyl group of S47 and the side chain carboxyl oxygen of E94. Other ferredoxin mutations that alter both reduction potential and electron-transfer reactivity are E94Q, F65A, and F65I, whereas D62K, D68K, Q70K, E94D, and F65Y have reduction potentials and electron-transfer reactivity that are similar to those of wild-type ferredoxin. In electrostatic complexes with recombinant FNR, three of the kinetically impaired ferredoxin mutants, as did wild-type ferredoxin, induced large (approximately 40 mV) positive shifts in the reduction potential of the flavoprotein, thereby making electron transfer thermodynamically feasible. On the basis of these observations, we conclude that nonconservative mutations of three critical residues (S47, F65, and E94) on the surface of ferredoxin have large parallel effects on both the reduction potential and the electron-transfer reactivity of the [2Fe-2S] cluster and that the reduction potential changes are not the principal factor governing electron-transfer reactivity. Rather, the kinetic properties are most likely controlled by the specific orientations of the proteins within the transient electron-transfer complex.