Correlation of rhombic distortion of the type 1 copper site of M98Q amicyanin with increased electron transfer reorganization energy.

Mutation of the axial Met ligand of the type 1 copper site of amicyanin to Ala or Gln yielded M98A amicyanin, which exhibits typical axial type 1 ligation geometry but with a water molecule providing the axial ligand, and M98Q amicyanin, which exhibits significant rhombic distortion of the type 1 site (Carrell, C. J., Ma, J. K., Antholine, W. E., Hosler, J. P., Mathews, F. S., and Davidson, V. L. (2007) Biochemistry 46, 1900-1912). Despite the change of the axial ligand, the M98Q and M98A mutations had little effect on the redox potential of copper. The true electron transfer (ET) reactions from O-quinol methylamine dehydrogenase to oxidized native and mutant amicyanins revealed that the M98A mutation had little effect on kET, but the M98Q mutation reduced kET 45-fold. Thermodynamic analysis of the latter showed that the decrease in kET was due to an increase of 0.4 eV in the reorganization energy (lambda) associated with the ET reaction to M98Q amicyanin. No change in the experimentally determined electronic coupling or ET distance was observed, confirming that the mutation had not altered the rate-determining step for ET and that this was still a true ET reaction. The basis for the increased lambda is not the nature of the atom that provides the axial ligand because each uses an oxygen from Gln in M98Q amicyanin and from water in M98A amicyanin. Comparisons of the distance of the axial copper ligand from the equatorial plane that is formed by the other three copper ligands in isomorphous crystals of native and mutant amicyanins at atomic resolution indicate an increase in distance from 0.20 A in the native to 0.42 A in M98Q amicyanin and a slight decrease in distance for M98A amicyanin. This correlates with the rhombic distortion caused by the M98Q mutation that is clearly evident in the EPR and visible absorption spectra of the protein and suggests that the extent of rhombicity of the type 1 copper site influences the magnitude of lambda.