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En esta tesis doctoral se abordó el estudio de los parámetros que regulan las reacciones de transferencia electrónica (TE) en sistemas proteicos dentro del marco teórico desarrollado por Marcus. Para ello se emplearon métodos espectroscópicos, electroquímicos, espectroelectroquímicos y computacionales. En particular, se investigaron dos componentes de la cadena de transporte respiratorio: el citocromo c (Cyt), un transportador soluble de electrones y el centro de CuA, el aceptor primario de la citocromo c oxidasa. En primer lugar, se estudió el rol de la dinámica proteica del Cyt y su modulación por campos eléctricos de relevancia biológica. Se verificó que dicha dinámica es crucial en la regulación de las reacciones de TE que tienen lugar en la cadena de transporte de electrones a través de la modulación del acoplamiento electrónico entre donor y aceptor. Por otro lado, se encontró evidencia de que el campo eléctrico regularía la alternancia entre dos conformaciones del Cyt que difieren principalmente en la magnitud de la energía de reorganización. Finalmente, se constató el rol fundamental de las fluctuaciones térmicas y la dinámica proteica para las reacciones de TE en centros de CuA. Dichos centros podrían alternar entre dos estados electrónicos distintos, en los cuales el balance entre la energía de reorganización y el acoplamiento electrónico permitiría conferir direccionalidad a las reacción de TE a pesar de presentar un ΔG≈0. El conjunto de los resultados obtenidos sugiere que los procesos de TE en sistemas biológicos se encuentran finamente regulados, y en particular nos permiten postular un mecanismo de retroalimentación negativa cuyo actor principal es el campo eléctrico interfacial. This Ph.D. thesis is dedicated to disentangling the parameters that regulate protein electron transfer (ET) reactions, within the theoretical framework developed by Marcus. To that end, spectroscopic, electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical and computational methods were employed. The proteins investigated are two components of the respiratory electron transport chain: cytochrome c (Cyt), a soluble electron shuttle, and the CuA center, the primary electron acceptor of cytochrome c oxidase. Part of the thesis deals with the role of protein dynamics and their modulation by biologically relevant electric fields for the specific case of Cyt. Such dynamics are proposed to be crucial in the regulation of the ET reactions that take place at the electron transport chain by modulating the electronic coupling between donor and acceptor. Moreover, we found evidence of the electric field acting as a switch between two different Cyt conformations that exhibit different reorganization energies. Finally, we verified that thermal fluctuations and protein dynamics play a fundamental role in the ET reaction of CuA centers. These centers could switch between two different electronic ground states in which the interplay between reorganization energy and electronic coupling may confer directionality to the ET reactions in spite of occurring with ΔG≈0. Altogether, these results suggest that ET process in biological systems are finely tuned, and allow us to postulate a mechanism of negative feedback whose main actor is the interfacial electric field. Fil: Alvarez Paggi, Damián Jorge. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.

Cytochrome c is the specific and efficient electron transfer mediator between the two last redox complexes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Its interaction with both partner proteins, namely cytochrome c1 (of complex III) and the hydrophilic CuA domain (of subunit II of oxidase), is transient, and known to be guided mainly by electrostatic interactions, with a set of acidic residues on the presumed docking site on the CuA domain surface and a complementary region of opposite charges exposed on cytochrome c. Information from recent structure determinations of oxidases from both mitochondria and bacteria, site-directed mutagenesis approaches, kinetic data obtained from the analysis of isolated soluble modules of interacting redox partners, and computational approaches have yielded new insights into the docking and electron transfer mechanisms. Here, we summarize and discuss recent results obtained from bacterial cytochrome c oxidases from both Paracoccus denitrificans, in which the primary electrostatic encounter most closely matches the mitochondrial situation, and the Thermus thermophilus ba3 oxidase in which docking and electron transfer is predominantly based on hydrophobic interactions.