Long-range intramolecular electron transfer in azurins.

The Cu(II) sites of azurins, the blue single copper proteins, isolated from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Alcaligenes spp. (Iwasaki) are reduced by CO2- radicals, produced by pulse radiolysis, in two distinct reaction steps: (i) a fast bimolecular phase, at the rates (5.0 +/- 0.8) x 10(8) M-1.s-1 (P. aeruginosa) and (6.0 +/- 1.0) x 10(8) M-1.s-1 (Alcaligenes); (ii) a slow unimolecular phase with specific rates of 44 +/- 7 s-1 in the former and 8.5 +/- 1.5 s-1 for the latter (all at 298 K, 0.1 M ionic strength). Concomitant with the fast reduction of Cu(II), the single disulfide bridge linking cysteine-3 to -26 in these proteins is reduced to the RSSR- radical ion as evidenced by its characteristic absorption band centered at 410 nm. This radical ion decays in a unimolecular process with a rate identical to that of the slow Cu(II) reduction phase in the respective protein, thus clearly suggesting that a long-range intramolecular electron transfer occurs between the RSSR- radicals and the Cu(II) site. The temperature dependence of the internal electron transfer process in both proteins was measured over the 4 degrees C to 42 degrees C range. The activation parameters derived are delta H* = 47.5 +/- 4.0 and 16.7 +/- 1.5 kJ.mol-1; and delta S not equal to = -56.5 +/- 7.0 and -171 +/- 18 J.K-1.mol-1, respectively. Using the Marcus theory, we found that the intramolecular electron transfer rates and their activation parameters observed for the two azurins correlate well with the distances between the reactive sites, their redox potential, and the nature of the separating medium. Thus, azurins with distinct structural and reactivity characteristics isolated from different bacteria or modified by site-directed mutagenesis can be used in comparing long-range electron transfer process between their conserved disulfide bridge and the Cu(II) sites.