Control of the coordination structure of organometallic palladium complexes in an apo-ferritin cage.

We report the preparation of organometallic Pd(allyl) dinuclear complexes in protein cages of apo-Fr by reactions with [Pd(allyl)Cl]2 (allyl = eta3-C3H5). One of the dinuclear complexes is converted to a trinuclear complex by replacing a Pd-coordinated His residue to an Ala residue. These results suggest that multinuclear metal complexes with various coordination structures could be prepared by the deletion or introduction of His, Cys, and Glu at appropriate positions on protein surface.