NMR of Redox Proteins of Plants, Yeasts and Photosynthetic Bacteria

NMR spectroscopy has evolved dramatically over the past 15 years, establishing a new, reliable methodology for studying biomacromolecules at atomic resolution. The three-dimensional structure and dynamics of a biomolecule or a biomolecular complex is only one of the main types of information available using NMR. The spectral assignment to the specific nuclei of a biostructure is a very precise reflection of their electronic environment. Any change in this environment due to a structural change, the binding of a ligand or the redox state of a redox cofactor, will be very sensitively reported by changes in the different NMR parameters. The capabilities of the NMR method are currently expanding dramatically and it is turning into a powerful means to study biosystems dynamically in exchange between different conformations, exchanging ligands, transient complexes, or the activation/inhibition of regulated enzymes. We review here several NMR studies that have appeared during the past 5 or 6 years in the field of redox proteins of plants, yeasts and photosynthetic bacteria. These new results illustrate the recent biomolecular NMR evolution and provide new physiological models for understanding the different types of electron transfer, including glutaredoxins, thioredoxins and their dependent enzymes, the ferredoxin-NADP oxidoreductase complex, flavodoxins, the plastocyanin-cytochrome f complex, and cytochromes c.