All reported sulfite oxidizing enzymes have a conserved arginine in their active site which hydrogen bonds to the equatorial oxygen ligand on the Mo atom. Previous studies on the pathogenic R160Q mutant of human sulfite oxidase (HSO) have shown that Mo-heme intramolecular electron transfer (IET) is dramatically slowed when positive charge is lost at this position. In order to better understand the function that this conserved positively charged residue plays in IET, we have studied the equivalent uncharged substitutions, R55Q and R55M, as well as the positively charged substitution, R55K, in bacterial sulfite dehydrogenase (SDH). The heme and molybdenum cofactor (Moco) subunits are tightly associated in SDH, which makes it an ideal system for increasing the understanding of residue function in IET without the added complexity of the inter-domain movement that occurs in HSO. Unexpectedly, the uncharged SDH variants (R55Q and R55M) showed increased IET rate constants relative to the wildtype (3–4 fold) when studied by laser flash photolysis. The gain in function observed in SDHR55Q and SDHR55M suggests that the reduction of IET seen in HSOR160Q is not due to a required role of this residue in the IET pathway itself, but to the fact that it plays an important role in heme orientation during the inter-domain movement necessary for IET in HSO (as seen in viscosity experiments). The pH profiles of SDHwt, SDHR55M, and SDHR55Q show that the arginine substitution also alters the behavior of the Mo-heme IET equilibrium (Keq) and rate constants (ket) of both variants with respect to SDHWT enzyme. SDHWT has a ket that is independent of pH and a Keq that increases as pH decreases, whereas both SDHR55M and SDHR55Q have a ket that increases as pH decreases, and SDHR55M has a Keq that is pH independent. IET in the SDHR55Q variant is inhibited by sulfate in laser flash photolysis experiments, a behavior that differs from SDHWT, but which also occurs in HSO. IET in SDHR55K is slower than for SDHWT. A new analysis of the possible mechanistic pathways for sulfite oxidizing enzymes is presented and related to available kinetic and EPR results for these enzymes.
In this work we investigate the use of coiled-coil silk proteins, produced in recombinant Escherichia coli, as a new material for immobilizing biosensors. Myoglobin was embedded in transparent honeybee silk protein films. Immobilized myoglobin maintained a high affinity for nitric oxide (KD NO=52 µM) and good sensitivity with a limit of detection of 5 µM. The immobilized myoglobin-silk protein film was stable and could be stored as a dry film at room temperature for at least 60 days. The effect of immobilization on the structure of myoglobin was fully investigated using UV/visible, Fourier Transform Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, which indicated a weakening in the strength of the iron-histidine bond. This study demonstrates that recombinant coiled-coil silk proteins provide a safe and environmentally friendly alternative to sol-gels for stabilizing heme proteins for use as optical biosensors.
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