Proximal ligand motions in H93G myoglobin

Eur J Biochem. 2002 Oct;269(19):4879-86. doi: 10.1046/j.1432-1033.2002.03193.x.

Abstract

Resonance Raman spectroscopy has been used to observe changes in the iron-ligand stretching frequency in photoproduct spectra of the proximal cavity mutant of myoglobin H93G. The measurements compare the deoxy ferrous state of the heme iron in H93G(L), where L is an exogenous imidazole ligand bound in the proximal cavity, to the photolyzed intermediate of H93G(L)*CO at 8 ns. There are significant differences in the frequencies of the iron-ligand axial out-of-plane mode nu(Fe-L) in the photoproduct spectra depending on the nature of L for a series of methyl-substituted imidazoles. Further comparison was made with the proximal cavity mutant of myoglobin in the absence of exogenous ligand (H93G) and the photoproduct of the carbonmonoxy adduct of H93G (H93G-*CO). For this case, it has been shown that H2O is the axial (fifth) ligand to the heme iron in the deoxy form of H93G. The photoproduct of H93G-*CO is consistent with a transiently bound ligand proposed to be a histidine. The data presented here further substantiate the conclusion that a conformationally driven ligand switch exists in photolyzed H93G-*CO. The results suggest that ligand conformational changes in response to dynamic motions of the globin on the nanosecond and longer time scales are a general feature of the H93G proximal cavity mutant.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Heme / chemistry
  • Hydrogen Bonding
  • In Vitro Techniques
  • Ligands
  • Myoglobin / chemistry*
  • Myoglobin / genetics*
  • Photochemistry
  • Photolysis
  • Point Mutation
  • Protein Conformation
  • Recombinant Proteins / chemistry
  • Recombinant Proteins / genetics
  • Spectrum Analysis, Raman
  • Whales

Substances

  • Ligands
  • Myoglobin
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Heme