A comparative study on axial coordination and ligand binding in ferric mini myoglobin and horse heart myoglobin

The absorption and resonance Raman spectra and the azide binding kinetics of ferric horse heart myoglobin (Mb) and mini myoglobin (a chemically truncated form of horse heart Mb containing residues 32-139) have been compared. The steady-state spectra show that an additional six-coordinated low-spin form (not present in entire horse heart Mb, which is purely six-coordinated high spin) predominates in mini Mb. The distal histidine is possibly the sixth ligand in this species. The presence of two species corresponds to a kinetic biphasicity for mini Mb that is not observed for horse heart Mb. Azide binds to horse heart Mb much more slowly than to sperm whale Mb. This difference may result from a sterically hindered distal pocket in horse heart Mb. In both cases, the rate constants level off at high azide concentrations, implying the existence of a rate-limiting step (likely referable to the dissociation of the axial sixth ligand). The faster rate constant of mini Mb is similar to that of sperm whale Mb, whereas the slower one is similar to that of entire horse heart Mb.     

Fe-heme conformations in ferric myoglobin.

X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectra of ferric myoglobin from horse heart have been acquired as a function of pH (between 5.3 and 11.3). At pH = 11.3 temperature-dependent spectra (between 20 and 293 K) have been collected as well. Experimental data solve three main conformations of the Fe-heme: the first, at low pH, is related to high-spin aquomet-myoglobin (Mb+OH2). The other two, at pH 11.3, are related to hydroxymet-myoglobin (Mb+OH-), and are in thermal equilibrium, corresponding to high- and low-spin Mb+OH-. The structure of the three Fe-heme conformations has been assigned according to spin-resolved multiple scattering simulations and fitting of the XANES data. The chemical transition between Mb+OH2 and high-spin Mb+OH-, and the spin transition of Mb+OH-, are accompanied by changes of the Fe coordination sphere due to its movement toward the heme plane, coupled to an increase of the axial asymmetry.     

Axial coordination of ferric Aplysia myoglobin

Resonance Raman spectra of ferric Aplysia myoglobin in the ligand-free and the azide-bound forms have been studied over a wide pH range to determine the coordination states of the heme iron atom. In the hydroxide form at high pH (approximately 9) the iron is six-coordinate and is in a high/low spin equilibrium. As the pH is lowered below the acid/alkaline transition (pKa = 7.5), the heme becomes five-coordinate. When the pH is lowered even further no other changes in the resonance Raman spectrum are detected; thus, the heme remains five-coordinate down to pH 4, the lowest value studied. For ferric azide-bound Aplysia myoglobin, the iron is six-coordinate in a high/low spin equilibrium at all pH values (4.8-9). These data indicate (i) that the unusual reactivity toward azide previously observed at neutral pH is indeed related to the absence of a coordinated water molecule, and (ii) that causes other than the heme coordination are responsible for the spectral differences and the ligand-binding kinetics differences observed below pH 6.     

Dynamics of ligand binding to myoglobin.

Myoglobin rebinding of carbon monoxide and dioxygen after photodissociation has been observed in the temperature range between 40 and 350 K. A system was constructed that records the change in optical absorption at 436 nm smoothly and without break between 2 musec and 1 ksec. Four different rebinding processes have been found. Between 40 and 160 K, a single process is observed. It is not exponential in time, but approximately given by N(t) = (1 + t/to)-n, where to and n are temperature-dependent, ligand-concentration independent, parameters. At about 170 K, a second and at 200 K, a third concentration-independent process emerge. At 210 K, a concentration-dependent process sets in. If myoglobin is embedded in a solid, only the first three can be seen, and they are all nonexponential. In a liquid glycerol-water solvent, rebinding is exponential. To interpret the data, a model is proposed in which the ligand molecule, on its way from the solvent to the binding site at the ferrous heme iron, encounters four barriers in succession. The barriers are tentatively identified with known features of myoglobin. By computer-solving the differential equation for the motion of a ligand molecule over four barriers, the rates for all important steps are obtained. The temperature dependences of the rates yield enthalpy, entropy, and free-energy changes at all barriers. The free-energy barriers at 310 K indicate how myoglobin achieves specificity and order. For carbon monoxide, the heights of these barriers increase toward the inside; carbon monoxide consequently is partially rejected at each of the four barriers. Dioxygen, in contrast, sees barriers of about equal height and moves smoothly toward the binding site. The entropy increases over the first two barriers, indicating a rupturing of bonds or displacement of residues, and then smoothly decreases, reaching a minimum at the binding site. The magnitude of the decrease over the innermost barrier implies participation of heme and/or protein. The nonexponential rebinding observed at low temperatures and in solid samples implies that the innermost barrier has a spectrum of activation energies. The shape of the spectrum has been determined; its existence can be explained by assuming the presence of many conformational states for myoglobin. In a liquid at temperatures above about 230 K, relaxation among conformational states occurs and rebinding becomes exponential.     

EPR characterization of alcohol complexes of ferric myoglobin and hemoglobin

Frozen solution electron paramagnetic resonance spectra of the aquo, methanol, and ethanol complexes of ferric myoglobin and hemoglobin are quantitatively analyzed in terms of the rhombic to tetragonal symmetry ratio and the admixture of quartet states, both with regard to central values of these parameters and the widths of their distributions. In both the methanol and ethanol complexes of ferric myoglobin the main change from the aquo complex is a narrowing of the spread in the rhombic to tetragonal symmetry ratio (reduction in structural variation). The alcohol complexes of both the alpha- and beta-chains within the tetramer of ferric hemoglobin are characterized by a lowering of symmetry (as compared with the aquo complex). Qualitative differences in distribution widths among the complexes are consistent with an origin in molecular structure and dynamics rather than in ice matrix-induced strain.     

Stereochemistry of carbon monoxide binding to myoglobin and hemoglobin

The binding of carbon monoxide to myoglobin and hemoglobin is examined to determine the origin of the deviation of the FeCO geometry from that found in model systems. Possible distortions due to protein-ligand interactions are analyzed with special attention to protein relaxation. It is estimated that the protein can support a strain of less than 10 kcal per mole; this may be sufficient to produce a displacement of a linear FeCO unit from the heme normal.     

On the mechanism of ligand binding to myoglobin

The association reaction of CO and O₂ with heme is expected to reflect the differences in the electronic structures of the two ligands. CO binding should be controlled by a high spin/low spin transition while oxygen binding is spin-allowed. Dioxygen should thus bind substantially faster than CO. The experimental association rates of the two ligands are, however, almost identical. We propose that the reaction is triggered in both cases by a fast structural intermediate which allows the CO molecule to bind adiabatically. A suitable structural transition has been identified recently by inelastic neutron scattering.     

Cyanate binding to the ferric heme octapeptide from cytochrome c. A model for anion binding to high spin ferric hemoproteins

Equilibrium constants for the binding of cyanate to the ferric heme c octapeptide in 50% ethylene glycol, 50% aqueous buffer were measured spectrophotometrically. Equilibrium constants measured at several temperatures from -20 degrees C to 0 degrees C exhibited an apparent van't Hoff relationship yielding thermodynamic values of delta Ho = -1.3 X 10(3) +/- 0.9 X 10(3) J/mol (-3.1 X 10(2) +/- 2 X 10(2) cal/mol), delta So = -3 +/- 3 J/K X mol (-0.6 +/- 0.8 cal/K X mol). The equilibrium constant for cyanate binding at 25 degrees C and pH 7.4 is 1.21 which is approximately 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than that observed for cyanate binding to methemoglobin and metmyoglobin. Krel, the ratio of the hemoprotein to model heme octapeptide binding constants, for NCO- is smaller than Krel for N3- suggesting that hydrogen bonding between the terminal ligand atoms and the distal histidine in hemoglobin and myoglobin does not contribute to the increased protein ligand stabilization observed for these anions relative to the model. A donor-acceptor interaction between the distal histidine and the electrophilic middle atoms of these bound ligands is proposed.     

Effects of formylation of vinyl side chains of heme on optical and ligand binding properties of horse heart ferric myoglobin.

Effects of substitution of vinyl groups of hemin with formyl groups on the optical and ligand binding properties of horse heart ferric myoglobin were investigated. The peak positions as well as the line shapes of the absorption spectra of the ferric derivatives of three kinds of formylmyoglobin, 2-vinyl-4-formyl-, 2-formyl-4-vinyl-, and 2,4-diformylmyoglobins depend on the number and the position of the formyl groups. Absorption maxima in the Soret region of the acid forms of these ferric formylmyoglobins in 0.1 M potassium phosphate buffer, pH 6.0, at 20 degrees were 415.2, 422, and 429 nm, respectively. The acid forms of these formylmyoglobins exhibit absorption spectra of the mixture of high- and low spin states at ambient temperature. Since proto-, deutero- and mesomyoglobins have a high spin state under the same condition, the increase of the low spin iron in these formylmyoglobins may be due to the strong electron withdrawal by the formyl groups toward the periphery of the porphyrin ring. The affinities of these ferric formylmyoglobins and protomyoglobin for N3-, F-, OCN-, and SCN- increased in the order of proto-, monoformyl-monovinyl-, 2,4-diformyl-myoglobin, which corresponds to the increasing order of electron-withdrawing power of the porphyrin side chains. The pKa values of the acid-alkaline transition decreased in the same order. Although the ferric forms of the two isomeric monoformyl-monovinylmyoglobins exhibited different optical spectra, the dissociation constants of the complexes of these isomers for various ligands were similar to each other. The pKa values of the acid-alkaline transition were also similar. These results indicate that affinities of ferric myoglobin for ligands, in contrast to those of the ferrous form for oxygen and carbon monoxide (Sono, M., and Asakura, T. (1975) J. Biol. Chem. 250, 5527-5232 and Sono, M., Smith, P.D., McCray, J.A., and Asakura, T. (1976) J. Biol. Chem 251, 1418-1426), are not affected by the position of modifications at the two vinyl groups, but are determinedby the number of the formyl groups and that two vinyl groups at position 2 and 4 are equivalent in the binding of various ligands by ferric myoglobin. The electron density of the ferric iron appears to be similar for the two isomeric monoformyl-monovinylmyoglobins.     

Coupling of protein relaxation to ligand binding and migration in myoglobin

Protein relaxation, ligand binding, and ligand migration into a hydrophobic cavity in myoglobin are unified by a bounded diffusion model which produces an accurate fit to complex ligand rebinding data over eight decades in time and a 160 K temperature range, in qualitative agreement with time-resolved x-ray crystallography. Protein relaxation operates in a cyclic manner to move the ligand away from the binding site.     

Energy distributions at the high-spin ferric sites in myoglobin crystals.

The orientation and temperature dependence (4.2-2.5 K) of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) power saturation and spin-lattice relaxation rate, and the orientation dependence of signal linewidth, were measured in single crystals of the aquo complex of ferric sperm whale skeletal muscle myoglobin. The spin-packet linewidth was found to be temperature independent and to vary by a factor of seven within the heme plane. An analysis is presented which enables one to arrive at (a) hyperfine component line-widths and, from the in-plane angular variation of the latter, at (b) the widths of distributions in energy differences between low-lying electronic levels and (c) the angular spread in the in-plane principal g-directions. The values of the energy level distributions in crystals obtained from the measurements and analysis reported here are compared with those obtained by a different method for the same protein complex in frozen solution. The spread in the rhombic energy splitting is significantly greater in solution than in the crystal.     

Kinetic studies of spin interconversion in ferric mixed-spin derivatives of myoglobin

Kinetic studies of spin interconversion in various derivatives of metmyoglobin such as the fluoride, aquo, hydroxide, azide, imidazole, and cyanide were performed by the coaxial-cable temperature-jump method. For all these derivatives, except fluoride and aquomyoglobin, a single relaxation was observed around 3 μsec. The rate constants and activation parameters for the spin interconversion were estimated and are discussed in comparison with those reported for the reaction of synthetic iron complex. Other hemoproteins such as cytochrome c and human hemoglobin were also examined, and the results were compared with those for myoglobin. The effect of buffer solution is also discussed.     

Utilization of myoglobin as a heme source by Haemophilus influenzae requires binding of myoglobin to haptoglobin

Haemophilus influenzae has an absolute growth requirement for heme. One potential in vivo source of heme is the protein myoglobin which is found at low levels in human serum. No tested H. influenzae strain was able to use myoglobin as a heme source. However, all strains were able to utilize the heme from myoglobin when myoglobin was complexed with haptoglobin. Utilization of the haptoglobin-myoglobin complex was shown to be mediated by the previously described hemoglobin/hemoglobin-haptoglobin-binding proteins of H. influenzae.     

Trapping intermediates in the crystal: ligand binding to myoglobin

Crystal structures of the reactive short-lived species that occur in chemical or binding reactions can be determined using X-ray crystallography via time-resolved or kinetic trapping approaches. Recently, various kinetic trapping methods have been used to determine the structure of intermediates in ligand binding to myoglobin.     

A kinetic description of ligand binding to sperm whale myoglobin

Nanosecond recombination time courses were measured by photolyzing O2, NO, CO, methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, n-butyl, and tert-butyl isocyanide complexes of sperm whale myoglobin with a 30-ns laser pulse at pH 7, 20 degrees C. Absorbance was measured both during and after the excitation pulse and as a function of laser light intensity. The results were analyzed quantitatively in terms of a three-step reaction scheme, MbX in equilibrium B in equilibrium C in equilibrium Mb + X, where Mb is myoglobin, B represents a geminate state in which the ligand is present in the distal pocket but not covalently bound to the iron atom, and C, a state in which the ligand is still embedded in the protein but further away from the heme group. The fitted rate parameters were required to be consistent with the observed overall quantum yield, Q, which had been measured independently using much longer (approximately 0.5 ms) xenon flash pulses. Three major conclusions were derived from these analyses. First, the overall quantum yield of the ligand complex is determined primarily by the competition between the rate of iron-ligand bond formation from the initial photoproduct, kB----MbX, and the rate of migration away from state B, kB----C. For example, kB----C approximately equal to 30-100 microseconds-1 for all three gaseous ligands, whereas both Q and kB----MbX vary over 3 orders of magnitude (i.e. NO, Q = 0.001, kB----MbX approximately equal to 16,000 microseconds-1; O2, Q = 0.1, kB----MbX approximately equal to 500 microseconds-1; CO, Q = 1.0, kB----MbX approximately equal to 2 microseconds-1). Second, for NO, O2, and the isonitriles, the rate-limiting step in the overall association reaction starting from ligand in solution is the formation of state B. The rate constant for this process varies from 2 X 10(7) M-1 s-1 for the gaseous ligands to 0.02-1.4 X 10(5) M-1 s-1 for the isonitriles. In contrast, the B to MbX transition is limiting for CO binding. Third, for all the ligands except CO, the overall rate of dissociation is limited significantly both by the rate of thermal bond disruption, kMbX----B, and the competition between geminate recombination and migration away from the distal pocket (i.e. kB----C/(kB----MbX + kB----C]. In the case of CO, the rate of bond disruption is equal to the observed dissociation rate constant.     

Binding mode of azide to ferric Aplysia limacina myoglobin. Crystallographic analysis at 1.9 A resolution

The binding mode of azide to the ferric form of Aplysia limacina myoglobin has been studied by X-ray crystallography. The three-dimensional structure of the complex has been refined at 1.9 A resolution to a crystallographic R-factor of 13.9%, including 126 ordered solvent molecules. Azide binds to the heme iron, at the sixth co-ordination position, and is oriented towards the outer part of the distal site crevice. This orientation is stabilized by an ionic interaction with the side-chain of Arg66 (E10) which, from an outer orientation in the 'aquo-met' ligand-free myoglobin, folds back towards the distal site in the presence of the anionic ligand. In the absence of a hydrogen bond donor residue at the distal E7 position in Aplysia limacina myoglobin, a different polar residue, Arg66 at the E10 topological position, has been selected by molecular evolution in order to grant ligand stabilization.