Horseradish peroxidase was reconstituted with cobalt tetradehydrocorrin, rHRP(Co(TDHC)), as a structural analog of cobalamin coordinated with an imidazolate-like His residue, which is generally seen in native enzymes. In contrast to the previously reported cobalt tetradehydrocorrin-reconstituted myoglobin, rMb(Co(TDHC)), the HRP matrix was expected to provide strong axial ligation by His170 which has imidazolate character. rHRP(Co(TDHC)) was characterized by EPR and its reaction with reductants indicates a negative shift of its redox potential compared to rMb(Co(TDHC)). Furthermore, aqua- and CN-forms of Co(III) state were prepared. The former species was obtained by oxidation of rHRP(Co(TDHC)) with K[Fe(CN)]. The cyanide-coordinated Co(III) species in the latter was prepared by ligand exchange of rHRP(Co(OH)(TDHC)) with exogenous cyanide upon addition of KCN. The C NMR chemical shift of cyanide in rHRP(Co(CN)(TDHC)) was determined to be 121.8 ppm. IR measurements show that the cyanide of rHRP(Co(CN)(TDHC)) has a stretching frequency peak at 2144 cm. The C NMR and IR measurements indicate strong coordination of cyanide to Co(TDHC) relative to rMb(Co(CN)(TDHC)). Thus, the extent of π-back donation from the cobalt ion to the cyanide ion is relatively high in rHRP(Co(CN)(TDHC)). The pK values of rHRP(Co(OH)(TDHC)) and rHRP(Co(CN)(TDHC)) are the same (pK = 3.2) as determined by a pH titration experiment, indicating that cyanide ligation does not affect Co-His ligation, whereas cyanide ligation weakens the Co-His ligation in rMb(Co(CN)(TDHC)). Taken together, these results indicate that HRP reconstituted with cobalt tetradehydrocorrin is a suitable cobalamin-dependent enzyme model with imidazolate-like His residue.