화학공학소재연구정보센터
Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.111, No.24, 6690-6694, 2007
Reorganization energy of the Cu-A center in purple azurin: Impact of the mixed valence-to-trapped valence state transition
Mixed valence (MV) coordination compounds play important roles in redox reactions in chemistry and biology. Details of the contribution of a mixed valence state to protein electron transfer (ET) reactivity such as reorganization energy, however, have not been experimentally defined. Herein we report measurements of reorganization energies of a binuclear Cu-A center engineered into Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin that exhibits a reversible transition between a totally delocalized MV state at pH 8.0 and a trapped valence (TV) state at pH 4.0. The reorganization energy of a His120Ala variant of Cu-A azurin that displays a TV state at both the above pH values has also been determined. We found that the MV-to-TV state transition increases the reorganization energy by 0.18 eV, providing evidence that the MV state of the Cu-A center has lower reorganization energy than its TV counterpart. We have also shown that lowering the pH from 8.0 to 4.0 results in a similar (similar to 0.4 eV) decrease in reorganization energy for both blue (type 1) and purple (Cu-A) azurins, even though the reorganization energies of the two different copper centers are different at a given pH. These results suggest that the MV state plays only a secondary role in modulation of the ET reactivity via the reorganization energy, as compared to that of the driving force.