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Photoinduced charge-transfer dynamics and the influence of cluster size on the dynamics were investigated using five iron-sulfur clusters: the 1Fe-4S cluster in Pyrococcus furiosus rubredoxin, the 2Fe-2S cluster in Pseudomonas putida putidaredoxin, the 4Fe-4S cluster in nitrogenase iron protein, and the 8Fe-7S P-cluster and the 7Fe-9S-1Mo FeMo cofactor in nitrogenase MoFe protein. Laser excitation promotes the iron-sulfur clusters to excited electronic states that relax to lower states. The electronic relaxation lifetimes of the 1Fe-4S, 8Fe-7S, and 7Fe-9S-1Mo clusters are on the picosecond time scale, although the dynamics of the MoFe protein is a mixture of the dynamics of the latter two clusters. The lifetimes of the 2Fe-2S and 4Fe-4S clusters, however, extend to several nanoseconds. A competition between reorganization energies and the density of electronic states (thus electronic coupling between states) mediates the charge-transfer lifetimes, with the 2Fe-2S cluster of Pdx and the 4Fe-4S cluster of Fe protein lying at the optimum leading to them having significantly longer lifetimes. Their long lifetimes make them the optimal candidates for long-range electron transfer and as external photosensitizers for other photoactivated chemical reactions like solar hydrogen production. Potential electron-transfer and hole-transfer pathways that possibly facilitate these charge transfers are proposed.

We have used (57)Fe nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy (NRVS) to study oxidized and reduced forms of the [4Fe-4S] cluster in the D14C variant ferredoxin from Pyrococcus furiosus (Pf D14C Fd). To assist the normal-mode assignments, we conducted NRVS with D14C ferredoxin samples with (36)S substituted into the [4Fe-4S] cluster bridging sulfide positions, and a model compound without ligand side chains, (Ph(4)P)(2)[Fe(4)S(4)Cl(4)]. Several distinct regions of NRVS intensity are identified, ranging from "protein" and torsional modes below 100 cm(-1), through bending and breathing modes near 150 cm(-1), to strong bands from Fe-S stretching modes between 250 and ∼400 cm(-1). The oxidized ferredoxin samples were also investigated by resonance Raman (RR) spectroscopy. We found good agreement between NRVS and RR frequencies, but because of different selection rules, the intensities vary dramatically between the two types of spectra. The (57)Fe partial vibrational densities of states for the oxidized samples were interpreted by normal-mode analysis with optimization of Urey-Bradley force fields for local models of the [4Fe-4S] clusters. Full protein model calculations were also conducted using a supplemented CHARMM force field, and these calculations revealed low-frequency modes that may be relevant to electron transfer with Pf Fd partners. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations complemented these empirical analyses, and DFT was used to estimate the reorganization energy associated with the [Fe(4)S(4)](2+/+) redox cycle. Overall, the NRVS technique demonstrates great promise for the observation and quantitative interpretation of the dynamical properties of Fe-S proteins.

Metal ion cofactors afford proteins virtually unlimited catalytic potential, enable electron transfer reactions and have a great impact on protein stability. Consequently, metalloproteins have key roles in most biological processes, including respiration (iron and copper), photosynthesis (manganese) and drug metabolism (iron). Yet, predicting from genome sequence the numbers and types of metal an organism assimilates from its environment or uses in its metalloproteome is currently impossible because metal coordination sites are diverse and poorly recognized. We present here a robust, metal-based approach to determine all metals an organism assimilates and identify its metalloproteins on a genome-wide scale. This shifts the focus from classical protein-based purification to metal-based identification and purification by liquid chromatography, high-throughput tandem mass spectrometry (HT-MS/MS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to characterize cytoplasmic metalloproteins from an exemplary microorganism (Pyrococcus furiosus). Of 343 metal peaks in chromatography fractions, 158 did not match any predicted metalloprotein. Unassigned peaks included metals known to be used (cobalt, iron, nickel, tungsten and zinc; 83 peaks) plus metals the organism was not thought to assimilate (lead, manganese, molybdenum, uranium and vanadium; 75 peaks). Purification of eight of 158 unexpected metal peaks yielded four novel nickel- and molybdenum-containing proteins, whereas four purified proteins contained sub-stoichiometric amounts of misincorporated lead and uranium. Analyses of two additional microorganisms (Escherichia coli and Sulfolobus solfataricus) revealed species-specific assimilation of yet more unexpected metals. Metalloproteomes are therefore much more extensive and diverse than previously recognized, and promise to provide key insights for cell biology, microbial growth and toxicity mechanisms.

The advent of the complete genome sequences of various organisms in the mid-1990s raised the issue of how one could determine the function of hypothetical proteins. While insight might be obtained from a 3D structure, the chances of being able to predict such a structure is limited for the deduced amino acid sequence of any uncharacterized gene. A template for modeling is required, but there was only a low probability of finding a protein closely-related in sequence with an available structure. Thus, in the late 1990s, an international effort known as structural genomics (SG) was initiated, its primary goal to "fill sequence-structure space" by determining the 3D structures of representatives of all known protein families. This was to be achieved mainly by X-ray crystallography and it was estimated that at least 5,000 new structures would be required. While the proteins (genes) for SG have subsequently been derived from hundreds of different organisms, extremophiles and particularly thermophiles have been specifically targeted due to the increased stability and ease of handling of their proteins, relative to those from mesophiles. This review summarizes the significant impact that extremophiles and proteins derived from them have had on SG projects worldwide. To what extent SG has influenced the field of extremophile research is also discussed.

A persistent puzzle in the field of biological electron transfer is the conserved iron-sulfur cluster motif in both high potential iron-sulfur protein (HiPIP) and ferredoxin (Fd) active sites. Despite this structural similarity, HiPIPs react oxidatively at physiological potentials, whereas Fds are reduced. Sulfur K-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy uncovers the substantial influence of hydration on this variation in reactivity. Fe-S covalency is much lower in natively hydrated Fd active sites than in HiPIPs but increases upon water removal; similarly, HiPIP covalency decreases when unfolding exposes an otherwise hydrophobically shielded active site to water. Studies on model compounds and accompanying density functional theory calculations support a correlation of Fe-S covalency with ease of oxidation and therefore suggest that hydration accounts for most of the difference between Fd and HiPIP reduction potentials.

Structural and functional characterization of the entire protein complement (the proteome) of an organism can provide an infrastructure upon which questions about biological pathways and systems biology can be framed. The technology necessary to perform this proteome-level structural and functional characterization is under development in numerous structural genomics and functional genomics initiatives. Given the ubiquity of metal active sites in a proteome, it seems appropriate to ask whether comprehensive local structural characterization of metal sites within a proteome (metalloproteomics) is either a valid or obtainable goal. With a proteome-wide knowledge of the active-site structures of all metalloproteins, one could start to ask how metal insertion, cluster assembly and metalloprotein expression are affected by growth conditions or developmental status etc. High-throughput X-ray absorption spectroscopy (HTXAS) is being developed as a technology for investigating the metalloproteome. In creating a pipeline from genome to metalloproteome, several bottlenecks to high-throughput determination of metal-site structures must be overcome. For example, automation of arraying small samples for XAS examination must be invented, automation of rapid data collection of multiple low-volume low-concentration samples must be developed, automation of data reduction and analysis must be perfected. Discussed here are the promises and the pitfalls of HTXAS development, including the results of initial feasibility experiments.

As the natural extension of the genomic sequencing projects, the goal of the various world-wide Structural Genomics projects is development of techniques for high throughput (HTP) cloning, protein overexpression, purification and structural determination, with the ultimate goal of determining all possible protein structures. Rapid (small-scale) screening of potential expression clones under different growth conditions is presumed to be possible and a viable way to increase throughput of protein expression. In order to test the utility of screening for soluble, heterologous protein expression, we have compared the production of recombinant proteins on a small scale (1 ml cultures in 96-well plates) in Escherichia coli under two growth conditions [a rich medium and a defined (minimal) medium] using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) against the affinity tag, with the amount of recombinant protein produced during the large-scale (500 ml) growth of E. coli. The large-scale expression products were examined after a single step affinity purification by visualization on SDS-PAGE gels. Of the open reading frames that were successfully expressed on the 1 ml scale as judged by immunodetection, 80% of them successfully scaled-up to 500 ml in a rich medium and 81% of them scaled-up in a defined medium. This is significantly higher than would be expected by a randomly selected expression condition and validates the use of small-scale expression as a screening tool for more efficient protein production.

Rubrerythrin was purified by multistep chromatography under anaerobic, reducing conditions from the hyperthermophilic archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus. It is a homodimer with a molecular mass of 39.2 kDa and contains 2.9 +/- 0.2 iron atoms per subunit. The purified protein had peroxidase activity at 85 degrees C using hydrogen peroxide with reduced P. furiosus rubredoxin as the electron donor. The specific activity was 36 micromol of rubredoxin oxidized/min/mg with apparent K(m) values of 35 and 70 microM for hydrogen peroxide and rubredoxin, respectively. When rubrerythrin was combined with rubredoxin and P. furiosus NADH:rubredoxin oxidoreductase, the complete system used NADH as the electron donor to reduce hydrogen peroxide with a specific activity of 7.0 micromol of H(2)O(2) reduced/min/mg of rubrerythrin at 85 degrees C. Strangely, as-purified (reduced) rubrerythrin precipitated when oxidized by either hydrogen peroxide, air, or ferricyanide. The gene (PF1283) encoding rubrerythrin was expressed in Escherichia coli grown in medium with various metal contents. The purified recombinant proteins each contained approximately three metal atoms/subunit, ranging from 0.4 Fe plus 2.2 Zn to 1.9 Fe plus 1.2 Zn, where the metal content of the protein depended on the metal content of the E. coli growth medium. The peroxidase activities of the recombinant forms were proportional to the iron content. P. furiosus rubrerythrin is the first to be characterized from a hyperthermophile or from an archaeon, and the results are the first demonstration that this protein functions in an NADH-dependent, hydrogen peroxide:rubredoxin oxidoreductase system. Rubrerythrin is proposed to play a role in the recently defined anaerobic detoxification pathway for reactive oxygen species.