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Hole hopping through tryptophan/tyrosine chains enables rapid unidirectional charge transport over long distances. We have elucidated structural and dynamical factors controlling hopping speed and efficiency in two modified azurin constructs that include a rhenium(I) sensitizer, Re(His)(CO) 3 (dmp) + , and one or two tryptophans (W 1 , W 2 ). Experimental kinetics investigations showed that the two closely spaced (3 to 4 Å) intervening tryptophans dramatically accelerated long-range electron transfer (ET) from Cu I to the photoexcited sensitizer. In our theoretical work, we found that time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics/molecular dynamics (QM/MM/MD) trajectories of low-lying triplet excited states of Re I (His)(CO) 3 (dmp) + -W 1 (-W 2 ) exhibited crossings between sensitizer-localized (*Re) and charge-separated [Re I (His)(CO) 3 (dmp •- )/(W 1 •+ or W 2 •+ )] (CS1 or CS2) states. Our analysis revealed that the distances, angles, and mutual orientations of ET-active cofactors fluctuate in a relatively narrow range in which the cofactors are strongly coupled, enabling adiabatic ET. Water-dominated electrostatic field fluctuations bring *Re and CS1 states to a crossing where *Re(CO) 3 (dmp) + ←W 1 ET occurs, and CS1 becomes the lowest triplet state. ET is promoted by solvation dynamics around *Re(CO) 3 (dmp) + (W 1 ); and CS1 is stabilized by Re(dmp •- )/W 1 •+ electron/hole interaction and enhanced W 1 •+ solvation. The second hop, W 1 •+ ←W 2 , is facilitated by water fluctuations near the W 1 /W 2 unit, taking place when the electrostatic potential at W 2 drops well below that at W 1 •+ Insufficient solvation and reorganization around W 2 make W 1 •+ ←W 2 ET endergonic, shifting the equilibrium toward W 1 •+ and decreasing the charge-separation yield. We suggest that multiscale TDDFT/MM/MD is a suitable technique to model the simultaneous evolution of photogenerated excited-state manifolds., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

Low reorganization free energies are necessary for fast electron transfer (ET) reactions. Hence, rational design of redox proteins with lower reorganization free energies has been a long-standing challenge, promising to yield a deeper understanding of the underlying principles of ET reactivity and to enable potential applications in different energy conversion systems. Herein we report studies of the intramolecular ET from pulse radiolytically produced disulfide radicals to Cu(II) in rationally designed azurin mutants. In these mutants, the copper coordination sphere has been fine-tuned to span a wide range of reduction potentials while leaving the metal binding site effectively undisrupted. We find that the reorganization free energies of ET within the mutants are indeed lower than that of WT azurin, increasing the intramolecular ET rate constants almost 10-fold: changes that are correlated with increased flexibility of their copper sites. Moreover, the lower reorganization free energy results in the ET rate constants reaching a maximum value at higher driving forces, as predicted by the Marcus theory.

Understanding how the folding of proteins establishes their functional characteristics at the molecular level challenges both theorists and experimentalists. The simplest test beds for confronting this issue are provided by electron transfer proteins. The environment provided by the folded protein to the cofactor tunes the metal's electron transport capabilities as envisioned in the entatic hypothesis. To see how the entatic state is achieved one must study how the folding landscape affects and in turn is affected by the metal. Here, we develop a coarse-grained functional to explicitly model how the coordination of the metal (which results in a so-called entatic or rack-induced state) modifies the folding of the metallated Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin. Our free-energy functional-based approach directly yields the proper nonlinear extra-thermodynamic free energy relationships for the kinetics of folding the wild type and several point-mutated variants of the metallated protein. The results agree quite well with corresponding laboratory experiments. Moreover, our modified free-energy functional provides a sufficient level of detail to explicitly model how the geometric entatic state of the metal modifies the dynamic folding nucleus of azurin.

The main active-site loop of the copper-binding protein azurin (a cupredoxin) has been shortened from C(112)TFPGH(117)SALM(121) to C(112)TPH(115)PFM(118) (the native loop from the cupredoxin amicyanin) and also to C(112)TPH(115)PM(117). The Cu(II) site structure is almost unaffected by shortening, as is that of the Cu(I) center at alkaline pH in the variant with the C(112)TPH(115)PM(117) loop sequence. Subtle spectroscopic differences due to alterations in the spin density distribution at the Cu(II) site can be attributed mainly to changes in the hydrogen-bonding pattern. Electron transfer is almost unaffected by the introduction of the C(112)TPH(115)PFM(118) loop, but removal of the Phe residue has a sizable effect on reactivity, probably because of diminished homodimer formation. At mildly acidic pH values, the His-115 ligand protonates and dissociates from the cuprous ion, an effect that has a dramatic influence on the reactivity of cupredoxins. These studies demonstrate that the amicyanin loop adopts a conformation identical to that found in the native protein when introduced into azurin, that a shorter than naturally occurring C-terminal active-site loop can support a functional T1 copper site, that CTPHPM is the minimal loop length required for binding this ubiquitous electron transfer center, and that the length and sequence of a metal-binding loop regulates a range of structural and functional features of the active site of a metalloprotein.

The tumor suppressor protein p53 is known to induce either apoptosis or growth arrest depending on cellular background. We have previously reported that a bacterial redox protein azurin induces apoptosis in J774 cell line-derived macrophages whereas a site-directed mutant M44KM64E azurin shows very little cytotoxicity and fails to induce apoptosis in J774 cells. We now report that purified M44KM64E mutant azurin protein can enter both J774 cells as well as the human breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Entry of M44KM64E mutant azurin in J774 cells causes strong inhibition of cell-cycle progression at the G1 to S phase and a higher level of transcription of the p21 gene. Corresponding to high p21 levels, the levels of cyclins and cyclin-dependent kinases were greatly lowered in M44KM64E mutant azurin-treated J774 cells. Interestingly, M44KM64E mutant azurin protein failed to elicit inhibition of cell-cycle progression in MCF-7 cells, presumably because of mutation at the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein that allows functional E2F formation in MCF-7 cells even in the presence of high intracellular p21 level. Thus, the WT azurin induces apoptosis but little inhibition of cell-cycle progression whereas the M44KM64E mutant azurin is deficient in the induction of apoptosis but mediates strong inhibition of cell-cycle progression, demonstrating the role of a single bacterial protein and its hydrophobic patch in modulating two important functions of p53.

The use of live bacteria in the treatment of cancer has a long and interesting history. We report the use of a purified bacterial redox protein, azurin, that enters human cancer (melanoma UISO-Mel-2) cells and induces apoptosis. The induction of apoptosis occurs readily in melanoma cells harboring a functional tumor suppressor protein p53, but much less efficiently in p53-null mutant melanoma (UISO-Mel-6) cells. A redox-negative mutant form of azurin (M44K/M64E) demonstrates much less cytotoxicity to the UISO-Mel-2 cells than the wild-type protein. Azurin has been shown to be internalized in UISO-Mel-2 cells and is localized predominantly in the cytosol and in the nuclear fraction. In the p53-null UISO-Mel-6 cells, azurin is localized only in the cytosol. Thus, intracellular trafficking of azurin to the nucleus is p53-dependent. Azurin forms a complex with p53, thereby stabilizing it and raising its intracellular level in cytosolic, mitochondrial, and nuclear fractions. Corresponding to an increasing level of p53, an inducer of apoptosis, the level of Bax also increases in mitochondria, allowing significant release of mitochondrial cytochrome c into the cytosol, thus initiating the onset of apoptosis. The M44K/M64E mutant form of azurin, deficient in cytotoxicity, is also deficient in forming a complex with p53 and is less efficient in stabilizing p53 than wild-type azurin. Azurin has been shown to allow regression of human UISO-Mel-2 tumors xenotransplanted in nude mice and may potentially be used in cancer treatment.

Genes for the blue copper proteins Populus nigra var. italica plastocyanin and Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin have been constructed by a stepwise procedure. The leader sequence for azurin has been placed before the genes directing plastocyanin and azurin transport to the periplasmic space when the genes are expressed in Escherichia coli. Site-saturation mutagenesis has been used to alter two copper-binding residues of azurin (Met-121 and His-46) and Met-92 of plastocyanin. While the plastocyanin mutants do not appear to bind copper, the azurin variants all bind copper and show characteristic type I blue copper centers. In particular, the electronic spectra reflect the dominance of the charge transfer interaction between copper and the thiolate of Cys-112, being relatively insensitive to changes in Met-121 or His-46. In contrast, removal of Met-121 appreciably alters the EPR spectra of the mutants, although, to a first order, the spectra of all mutants are themselves similar, suggesting a more distorted geometry around copper in the mutants than in the wild type.

cDNA clones for ascorbate oxidase were isolated from a cDNA library made from cucumber (Cucumis sativus) fruit mRNA. The library was screened with synthetic oligonucleotides that encode the NH2-terminal sequence of this enzyme. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned cDNA inserts revealed a 1761-base-pair open reading frame that encoded an NH2-terminal signal peptide of 33 amino acids and a mature enzyme of 554 amino acids (Mr, 62,258). The amino acid sequence deduced from nucleotide sequence analysis agrees with the NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified ascorbate oxidase, as determined by microsequencing methods. Cucumber ascorbate oxidase contained four histidine-rich regions with striking sequence homology to the corresponding parts of the other multicopper oxidases such as Neurospora crassa laccase and human ceruloplasmin and, to some extent, to a low molecular weight copper protein such as plastocyanin. Moreover, these data further support the hypothesis that the small blue copper proteins and the multicopper oxidases have evolved from the same ancestral gene. By RNA blot hybridization analysis, the mRNA for the ascorbate oxidase was found to be abundant in cucumber fruit tissue while expressed at very low levels in leaf and root tissues.

The laccase (benzenediol:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.10.3.2) gene from Neurospora crassa was cloned and part of its nucleotide sequence corresponding to the carboxyl-terminal region of the protein has been determined. The gene was cloned by cDNA synthesis with a laccase-specific synthetic deoxyundecanucleotide as primer and poly(A) RNA isolated from cycloheximide-treated N. crassa cultures as template. Based on the nucleotide sequence of the cDNA obtained, a unique 21-mer was synthesized and used to screen a genomic DNA library from N. crassa. Five different positive clones were isolated and shown to share an overlapping DNA region with the same pattern of restriction sites. Sequence analysis of the common 1.36-kilobase Sal I fragment revealed an open reading frame of 726 nucleotides. The amino acid sequence deduced is in complete agreement with the primary structures of several tryptic peptides isolated previously from N. crassa laccase. The analyzed carboxyl-terminal region of laccase exhibits a striking sequence homology to the carboxyl-terminal part of the third homology unit of the multicopper oxidase ceruloplasmin and to a smaller extent, to the low molecular weight blue copper proteins plastocyanin and azurin. Based on amino acid sequence comparison between these proteins, putative copper ligands of N. crassa laccase are proposed. Moreover, these data further support the hypothesis that the small blue copper proteins and the multicopper oxidases have evolved from the same ancestral gene.