Insight into environmental effects on bonding and redox properties of [4Fe-4S] clusters in proteins.

The large differences in redox potentials between the HiPIPs and ferredoxins are generally attributed to hydrogen bonds and electrostatic effects from the protein and solvent. Recent ligand K-edge X-ray absorption studies by Solomon and co-workers show that the Fe-S covalencies of [4Fe-4S] clusters in the two proteins differ considerably apparently because of hydrogen bonds from water, indicating electronic effects may be important. However, combined density function theory (DFT) and photoelectron spectroscopy studies by our group and Wang and co-workers indicate that hydrogen bonds tune the potential of [4Fe-4S] clusters by mainly electrostatics. The DFT studies here rationalize both results, namely that the observed change in the Fe-S covalency is due to differences in ligand conformation between the two proteins rather than hydrogen bonds. Moreover, the ligand conformation affects the calculated potentials by approximately 100 mV and, thus, is a heretofore unconsidered means of tuning the potential.