Walking the seven lines: binuclear copper A in cytochrome c oxidase and nitrous oxide reductase.

The enzymes nitrous oxide reductase (N2OR) and cytochrome c oxidase (COX) are constituents of important biological processes. N2OR is the terminal reductase in a respiratory chain converting N2O to N2 in denitrifying bacteria; COX is the terminal oxidase of the aerobic respiratory chain of certain bacteria and eukaryotic organisms transforming O2 to H2O accompanied by proton pumping. Different spectroscopies including magnetic resonance techniques, were applied to show that N2OR has a mixed-valent Cys-bridged [Cu1.5+(CyS)2Cu1.5+] copper site, and that such a binuclear center, called CuA, does also exist in COX. A sequence motif shared between the CuA center of N2OR and the subunit II of COX raises the issue of a putative evolutionary relationship of the two enzymes. The suggestion of a binuclear CuA in COX, with one unpaired electron delocalized between two equivalent Cu nuclei, was difficult to accept originally, even though regarded as a clever solution to many experimental observations. This minireview in honor of Helmut Sigel traces several of the critical steps forward in understanding the nature of CuA in N2OR and COX, and discusses its unique electronic features to some extent including the contributions made by the development of methodology and the discovery of a novel multi-copper enzyme. Left: X-band (9.130 GHz) and C-band (4.530 GHz, 1st harmonic display of experimental spectrum) EPR spectra of bovine heart cytochrome c oxidase, recorded at 20K. Right: Ribbon presentation of the CuA domain in cytochrome c oxidase and nitrous oxide reductase.