Cytochrome c oxidase catalyzes most of the biological oxygen consumption on Earth, a process responsible for energy supply in aerobic organisms. This remarkable membrane-bound enzyme also converts free energy from O2 reduction to an electrochemical proton gradient by functioning as a redox-linked proton pump. Although the structures of several oxidases are known, the molecular mechanism of redox-linked proton translocation has remained elusive. Here, correlated internal electron and proton transfer reactions were tracked in real time by spectroscopic and electrometric techniques after laser-activated electron injection into the oxidized enzyme. The observed kinetics establish the long-sought reaction sequence of the proton pump mechanism and describe some of its thermodynamic properties. The 10-s electron transfer to heme a raises the pKa of a ''pump site,'' which is loaded by a proton from the inside of the membrane in 150 s. This loading increases the redox potentials of both hemes a and a3, which allows electron equilibration between them at the same rate. Then, in 0.8 ms, another proton is transferred from the inside to the heme a3/CuB center, and the electron is transferred to CuB. Finally, in 2.6 ms, the preloaded proton is released from the pump site to the opposite side of the membrane.cytochrome oxidase ͉ electron transfer ͉ proton translocation

Electron transfer in complex I from Escherichia coli was investigated by an ultrafast freeze-quench approach. The reaction of complex I with NADH was stopped in the time domain from 90 s to 8 ms and analyzed by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy at low temperatures. The data show that after binding of the first molecule of NADH, two electrons move via the FMN cofactor to the iron-sulfur (Fe/S) centers N1a and N2 with an apparent time constant of Ϸ90 s, implying that these two centers should have the highest redox potential in the enzyme. The rate of reduction of center N2 (the last center in the electron transfer sequence) is close to that predicted by electron transfer theory, which argues for the absence of coupled proton transfer or conformational changes during electron transfer from FMN to N2. After fast reduction of N1a and N2, we observe a slow, Ϸ1-ms component of reduction of other Fe/S clusters. Because all elementary electron transfer rates between clusters are several orders of magnitude higher than this observed rate, we conclude that the millisecond component is limited by a single process corresponding to dissociation of the oxidized NAD ؉ molecule from its binding site, where it prevents entry of the next NADH molecule. Despite the presence of approximately one ubiquinone per enzyme molecule, no transient semiquinone formation was observed, which has mechanistic implications, suggesting a high thermodynamic barrier for ubiquinone reduction to the semiquinone radical. Possible consequences of these findings for the proton translocation mechanism are discussed.EPR spectroscopy ͉ Escherichia coli ͉ freeze-quench ͉ iron-sulfur clusters ͉ reactive oxygen species C omplex I is one of the three key enzymes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. The simpler prokaryotic version contains the same cofactors and performs the same major function as its eukaryotic counterpart (1). Complex I couples electron transfer from NADH to ubiquinone to translocation of 2 H ϩ /e Ϫ across the membrane (2). It is a true redox-linked proton pump, as is complex IV (3), but is distinct from complex III, which generates the electrochemical proton gradient across the membrane by a redox loop mechanism (4). Complex I consists of membrane and extramembrane domains (1). A recent structure of the latter (5) established the relative positions of the NADH-oxidizing cofactor FMN and several iron-sulfur (Fe/S) clusters that provide an electron transfer pathway to the electron acceptor, ubiquinone, in the membrane domain (Fig. 1). There is no high-resolution structure of the membrane domain, which must contain the machinery of proton translocation. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy of complex I reveals individual signals of two binuclear and several tetranuclear Fe/S clusters (6). Equilibrium redox titrations have shown that the tetranuclear cluster N2, the last in the chain (Fig. 1), has the highest midpoint redox potential (E m ), approximately Ϫ150 mV vs. NHE. One of the binuclear clusters, N1a, has b...

Cytochrome bd is one of the two terminal quinol oxidases in the respiratory chain of Escherichia coli. The enzyme catalyzes charge separation across the bacterial membrane during the oxidation of quinols by dioxygen but does not pump protons. In this work, the reaction of cytochrome bd with O(2) and related reactions has been studied by time-resolved spectrophotometric and electrometric methods. Oxidation of the fully reduced enzyme by oxygen is accompanied by rapid generation of membrane potential (delta psi, negative inside the vesicles) that can be described by a two-step sequence of (i) an initial oxygen concentration-dependent, electrically silent, process (lag phase) corresponding to the formation of a ferrous oxy compound of heme d and (ii) a subsequent monoexponential electrogenic phase with a time constant <60 mus that matches the formation of ferryl-oxo heme d, the product of the reaction of O(2) with the 3-electron reduced enzyme. No evidence for generation of an intermediate analogous to the "peroxy" species of heme-copper oxidases could be obtained in either electrometric or spectrophotometric measurements of cytochrome bd oxidation or in a spectrophotometric study of the reaction of H(2)O(2) with the oxidized enzyme. Backflow of electrons upon flash photolysis of the singly reduced CO complex of cytochrome bd leads to transient generation of a delta psi of the opposite polarity (positive inside the vesicles) concurrent with electron flow from heme d to heme b(558) and backward. The amplitude of the delta psi produced by the backflow process, when normalized to the reaction yield, is close to that observed in the direct reaction during the reaction of fully reduced cytochrome bd with O(2) and is apparently associated with full transmembrane translocation of approximately one charge.

We have studied the kinetics of the oxygen reaction of the fully reduced quinol oxidase, cytochrome bo3, using flow-flash and stopped flow techniques. This enzyme belongs to the heme-copper oxidase family but lacks the CUA

Real-time measurements of the cytochrome c oxidase reaction with oxygen were performed by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, using a mutant with a blocked D-pathway of proton transfer (D124N, Paracoccus denitrificans numbering). The complex spectrum of the ferryl-->oxidized transition together with other bands showed protonation of Glu 278 with a peak position at 1743 cm-1. Since our time resolution was not sufficient to follow the earlier reaction steps, the FTIR spectrum of the CO-inhibited fully reduced-->ferryl transition was obtained as a difference between the spectrum before the laser flash and the first spectrum after it. A trough at 1735 cm-1 due to deprotonation of Glu 278 was detected in this spectrum. These observations confirm the proposal [Smirnova I.A., et al. (1999) Biochemistry 38, 6826-6833] that the proton required for chemistry at the binuclear site is taken from Glu 278 in the perroxy-->ferryl step, and that the rate of the next step (ferryl-->oxidized) is limited by reprotonation of Glu 278 from the N-side of the membrane in the D124N mutant enzyme. The blockage of the D-pathway in this mutant for the first time allowed direct detection of deprotonation of Glu 278 and its reprotonation during oxidation of cytochrome oxidase by O2.