Flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis measurements demonstrate a conformational dependence of electron transfer rates across a 16-mer helical bundle (three-helix metalloprotein) modified with a capping Co'II(bipyridine)3 electron acceptor at the N terminus and a 1-ethyl-1'-ethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium donor at the C terminus. For the CoIII(peptide)3-1-ethyl-1'-ethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium maquettes, the observed transfer is a first order, intramolecular process, independent of peptide concentration or laser pulse energy. In the presence of 6 M urea, the random coil bundle (0% helicity) has an observed electron transfer rate constant of kobs = 900 ± 100 s-1. In the presence of 25% trifluoroethanol (TFE), the helicity of the peptide is 80% and the k.bs increases to 2000 + 200 s-1. Moreover, the increase in the rate constant in TFE is consistent with the observed decrease in donoracceptor distance in this solvent. Such bifunctional systems provide a class of molecules for testing the effects of conformation on electron transfer in proteins and peptides.De novo design of redox proteins represents a significant challenge for biological and biomimetic chemistry (1, 2). Several maquettes have been designed toward systems in which electrons can be translocated across proteins (3,4). A wealth of data now exist for modified natural proteins like cytochrome c (5, 6). Significant data are also available for modified single peptide systems (7), but conformational equilibria often complicate the interpretation of simple systems (8). Two particularly attractive structural maquettes for the design and study of de novo redox proteins were reported by Ghadhiri et al. (9) and Lieberman and Sasaki (10). Both systems consist of a three helix bundle, whose stoichiometry and topology are defined by the capping metal bipyridyl complex. These bundles have been well characterized in the literature (2, 9-11). Because there are numerous tris-bipyridyl complexes, using this motif to create three helix bundles allows ready access to the many varied spectroscopic, photophysical, and redox properties offered by these metal compounds. Moreover, the ability to control the conformation of these three helix bundles under different solvent conditions provides a facile system in which to study the effects of secondary structure on rates of electron transfer (ET), while maintaining a constant bond connectivity. By probing the ET rates of a designed metalloprotein in both folded and unfolded states, the role of helical secondary structure in mediating ET can be investigated.
MATERIALS AND METHODSPeptide Modifications. A minor elaboration on these metalloproteins provides a model bifunctional redox system in which redox active 1-ethyl-1'-ethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium is covalently linked to the C terminus of a bipyridine-modified 16-mer peptide, called "16-mer," and a redox active metal (cobalt) is incorporated into the N terminus as shown in Fig. 1. The sequence of the 16-mer and the structure of the C-terminal modifier, 1-ethyl-i '-ethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium, ...