Some electron-transfer reactions involving carbodi-imide-modified cytochrome c

Abstract

The reaction kinetics of native and carbodi-imide-modified tuna and horse heart cytochromes c with both a strong (dithionite) and a relatively weak (ascorbate) reducing agent were studied over a wide range of conditions. In their reactions with dithionite both the native and modified cytochromes exhibit single exponential time courses. The effects of dithionite concentration and ionic strength on the rate of the reduction are complex and can best be explained in terms of the model proposed by Lambeth & Palmer [(1973) J. Biol. Chem. 248, 6095-6103]. According to this model, at low ionic strength the native proteins are reduced almost exclusively by S2O4(2-) whereas the modified proteins showed reactivity towards both S2O4(2-) and SO2.-. These findings are interpreted in terms of the different charge characteristics of the carbodi-imide-modified proteins relative to the native proteins. The findings that the modified proteins react with ascorbate in a biphasic manner are explained as arising from ascorbate binding to a reducible form of the protein, before electron transfer, with an equilibrium between the ascorbate-reducible form of the protein and a non-reducible form. Estimates were obtained for both the ascorbate equilibrium binding constant and the rate constant for the internal electron transfer for both the native and modified horse and tuna proteins. The effect of pH on the reactions indicates that the active reductant in all cases is ascorbate2-. The studies of ascorbate reactivity yield important information concerning the proposed correlation between ascorbate reducibility and the presence of a 695 nm-absorption band, and the study of dithionite reactivity illustrates the effect of protein charge and solution ionic strength on the relative contributions made by the species SO2.- and S2O4(2-) to the reduction of ferricytochrome c.