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In thylakoid membranes, photosystem II (PSII) monomers from the stromal lamellae contain the subunits PsbS and Psb27 (PSIIm-S/27), while PSII monomers (PSIIm) from granal regions lack these subunits. Here, we have isolated and characterized these 2 types of PSII complexes in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). PSIIm-S/27 showed enhanced fluorescence, the near absence of oxygen evolution, and limited and slow electron transfer from QA to QB compared to the near-normal activities in the granal PSIIm. However, when bicarbonate was added to PSIIm-S/27, water splitting and QA to QB electron transfer rates were comparable to those in granal PSIIm. The findings suggest that the binding of PsbS and/or Psb27 inhibits forward electron transfer and lowers the binding affinity for bicarbonate. This can be rationalized in terms of the recently discovered photoprotection role played by bicarbonate binding via the redox tuning of the QA/QA•- couple, which controls the charge recombination route, and this limits chlorophyll triplet-mediated 1O2 formation. These findings suggest that PSIIm-S/27 is an intermediate in the assembly of PSII in which PsbS and/or Psb27 restrict PSII activity while in transit using a bicarbonate-mediated switch and protective mechanism., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement. The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of American Society of Plant Biologists.)

The Mo/Fe nitrogenase enzyme is unique in its ability to efficiently reduce dinitrogen to ammonia at atmospheric pressures and room temperature. Should an artificial electrolytic device achieve the same feat, it would revolutionize fertilizer production and even provide an energy-dense, truly carbon-free fuel. This Review provides a coherent comparison of recent progress made in dinitrogen fixation on solid electrodes, homogeneous catalysts and nitrogenases. Specific emphasis is placed on systems for which there is unequivocal evidence that dinitrogen reduction has taken place. By establishing the cross-cutting themes and synergies between these systems, we identify viable avenues for future research., (© 2023. Springer Nature Limited.)

Photosystem II (PSII) uses the energy from red light to split water and reduce quinone, an energy-demanding process based on chlorophyll a (Chl-a) photochemistry. Two types of cyanobacterial PSII can use chlorophyll d (Chl-d) and chlorophyll f (Chl-f) to perform the same reactions using lower energy, far-red light. PSII from Acaryochloris marina has Chl-d replacing all but one of its 35 Chl-a, while PSII from Chroococcidiopsis thermalis , a facultative far-red species, has just 4 Chl-f and 1 Chl-d and 30 Chl-a. From bioenergetic considerations, the far-red PSII were predicted to lose photochemical efficiency and/or resilience to photodamage. Here, we compare enzyme turnover efficiency, forward electron transfer, back-reactions and photodamage in Chl-f-PSII, Chl-d-PSII, and Chl-a-PSII. We show that: (i) all types of PSII have a comparable efficiency in enzyme turnover; (ii) the modified energy gaps on the acceptor side of Chl-d-PSII favour recombination via P D1 + Phe - repopulation, leading to increased singlet oxygen production and greater sensitivity to high-light damage compared to Chl-a-PSII and Chl-f-PSII; (iii) the acceptor-side energy gaps in Chl-f-PSII are tuned to avoid harmful back reactions, favouring resilience to photodamage over efficiency of light usage. The results are explained by the differences in the redox tuning of the electron transfer cofactors Phe and Q A and in the number and layout of the chlorophylls that share the excitation energy with the primary electron donor. PSII has adapted to lower energy in two distinct ways, each appropriate for its specific environment but with different functional penalties., Competing Interests: SV, WR, SS, DN, RA, HD, JS, AB, AF, AR No competing interests declared, (© 2022, Viola et al.)

Photosystem II (PSII), the water/plastoquinone photo-oxidoreductase, plays a key energy input role in the biosphere. [Formula: see text], the reduced semiquinone form of the nonexchangeable quinone, is often considered capable of a side reaction with O 2 , forming superoxide, but this reaction has not yet been demonstrated experimentally. Here, using chlorophyll fluorescence in plant PSII membranes, we show that O 2 does oxidize [Formula: see text] at physiological O 2 concentrations with a t 1/2 of 10 s. Superoxide is formed stoichiometrically, and the reaction kinetics are controlled by the accessibility of O 2 to a binding site near [Formula: see text], with an apparent dissociation constant of 70 ± 20 µM. Unexpectedly, [Formula: see text] could only reduce O 2 when bicarbonate was absent from its binding site on the nonheme iron (Fe 2+ ) and the addition of bicarbonate or formate blocked the O 2 -dependant decay of [Formula: see text] These results, together with molecular dynamics simulations and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics calculations, indicate that electron transfer from [Formula: see text] to O 2 occurs when the O 2 is bound to the empty bicarbonate site on Fe 2+ A protective role for bicarbonate in PSII was recently reported, involving long-lived [Formula: see text] triggering bicarbonate dissociation from Fe 2+ [Brinkert et al , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 12144-12149 (2016)]. The present findings extend this mechanism by showing that bicarbonate release allows O 2 to bind to Fe 2+ and to oxidize [Formula: see text] This could be beneficial by oxidizing [Formula: see text] and by producing superoxide, a chemical signal for the overreduced state of the electron transfer chain., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.)

Far-red light (FRL) Photosystem II (PSII) isolated from Chroococcidiopsis thermalis is studied using parallel analyses of low-temperature absorption, circular dichroism (CD) and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopies in conjunction with fluorescence measurements. This extends earlier studies (Nurnberg et al 2018 Science 360 (2018) 1210-1213). We confirm that the chlorophyll absorbing at 726 nm is the primary electron donor. At 1.8 K efficient photochemistry occurs when exciting at 726 nm and shorter wavelengths; but not at wavelengths longer than 726 nm. The 726 nm absorption peak exhibits a 21 ± 4 cm -1 electrochromic shift due to formation of the semiquinone anion, Q A - . Modelling indicates that no other FRL pigment is located among the 6 central reaction center chlorins: P D1 , P D2 Chl D1 , Chl D2 , Pheo D1 and Pheo D2 . Two of these chlorins, Chl D1 and P D2, are located at a distance and orientation relative to Q A - so as to account for the observed electrochromic shift. Previously, Chl D1 was taken as the most likely candidate for the primary donor based on spectroscopy, sequence analysis and mechanistic arguments. Here, a more detailed comparison of the spectroscopic data with exciton modelling of the electrochromic pattern indicates that P D2 is at least as likely as Chl D1 to be responsible for the 726 nm absorption. The correspondence in sign and magnitude of the CD observed at 726 nm with that predicted from modelling favors P D2 as the primary donor. The pros and cons of P D2 vs Chl D1 as the location of the FRL-primary donor are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The recently discovered, chlorophyll- f -containing, far-red photosystem II (FR-PSII) supports far-red light photosynthesis. Participation and kinetics of spectrally shifted far-red pigments are directly observable and separated from that of bulk chlorophyll- a We present an ultrafast transient absorption study of FR-PSII, investigating energy transfer and charge separation processes. Results show a rapid subpicosecond energy transfer from chlorophyll- a to the long-wavelength chlorophylls- f/d The data demonstrate the decay of an ∼720-nm negative feature on the picosecond-to-nanosecond timescales, coinciding with charge separation, secondary electron transfer, and stimulated emission decay. An ∼675-nm bleach attributed to the loss of chl- a absorption due to the formation of a cation radical, P D1 +• , is only fully developed in the nanosecond spectra, indicating an unusually delayed formation. A major spectral feature on the nanosecond timescale at 725 nm is attributed to an electrochromic blue shift of a FR-chlorophyll among the reaction center pigments. These time-resolved observations provide direct experimental support for the model of Nürnberg et al. [D. J. Nürnberg et al. , Science 360, 1210-1213 (2018)], in which the primary electron donor is a FR-chlorophyll and the secondary donor is chlorophyll- a (P D1 of the central chlorophyll pair). Efficient charge separation also occurs using selective excitation of long-wavelength chlorophylls- f/d , and the localization of the excited state on P 720 * points to a smaller (entropic) energy loss compared to conventional PSII, where the excited state is shared over all of the chlorin pigments. This has important repercussions on understanding the overall energetics of excitation energy transfer and charge separation reactions in FR-PSII., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing interest.

The effect of bicarbonate (HCO 3 - ) on photosystem II (PSII) activity was discovered in the 1950s, but only recently have its molecular mechanisms begun to be clarified. Two chemical mechanisms have been proposed. One is for the electron-donor side, in which mobile HCO 3 - enhances and possibly regulates water oxidation by acting as proton acceptor, after which it dissociates into CO 2 and H 2 O. The other is for the electron-acceptor side, in which (i) reduction of the Q A quinone leads to the release of HCO 3 - from its binding site on the non-heme iron and (ii) the E m potential of the Q A /Q A •- couple increases when HCO 3 - dissociates. This suggested a protective/regulatory role of HCO 3 - as it is known that increasing the E m of Q A decreases the extent of back-reaction-associated photodamage. Here we demonstrate, using plant thylakoids, that time-resolved membrane-inlet mass spectrometry together with 13 C isotope labeling of HCO 3 - allows donor- and acceptor-side formation of CO 2 by PSII to be demonstrated and distinguished, which opens the door for future studies of the importance of both mechanisms under in vivo conditions.

Photosystem II (PSII), the light-driven water/plastoquinone photooxidoreductase, is of central importance in the planetary energy cycle. The product of the reaction, plastohydroquinone (PQH 2 ), is released into the membrane from the Q B site, where it is formed. A plastoquinone (PQ) from the membrane pool then binds into the Q B site. Despite their functional importance, the thermodynamic properties of the PQ in the Q B site, Q B , in its different redox forms have received relatively little attention. Here we report the midpoint potentials ( E m ) of Q B in PSII from Thermosynechococcus elongatus using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy: E m Q B /Q B •- ≈ 90 mV, and E m Q B •- /Q B H 2 ≈ 40 mV. These data allow the following conclusions: 1) The semiquinone, Q B •- , is stabilized thermodynamically; 2) the resulting E m Q B /Q B H 2 (∼65 mV) is lower than the E m PQ/PQH 2 (∼117 mV), and the difference (ΔE ≈ 50 meV) represents the driving force for Q B H 2 release into the pool; 3) PQ is ∼50× more tightly bound than PQH 2 ; and 4) the difference between the E m Q B /Q B •- measured here and the E m Q A /Q A •- from the literature is ∼234 meV, in principle corresponding to the driving force for electron transfer from Q A •- to Q B The pH dependence of the thermoluminescence associated with Q B •- provided a functional estimate for this energy gap and gave a similar value (≥180 meV). These estimates are larger than the generally accepted value (∼70 meV), and this is discussed. The energetics of Q B in PSII are comparable to those in the homologous purple bacterial reaction center., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

The biological route for nitrogen gas entering the biosphere is reduction to ammonia by the nitrogenase enzyme, which is inactivated by oxygen. Three types of nitrogenase exist, the least-studied of which is the iron-only nitrogenase. The Anf3 protein in the bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus is essential for diazotrophic ( i.e. nitrogen-fixing) growth with the iron-only nitrogenase, but its enzymatic activity and function are unknown. Here, we biochemically and structurally characterize Anf3 from the model diazotrophic bacterium Azotobacter vinelandii Determining the Anf3 crystal structure to atomic resolution, we observed that it is a dimeric flavocytochrome with an unusually close interaction between the heme and the FAD cofactors. Measuring the reduction potentials by spectroelectrochemical redox titration, we observed values of -420 ± 10 and -330 ± 10 mV for the two FAD potentials and -340 ± 1 mV for the heme. We further show that Anf3 accepts electrons from spinach ferredoxin and that Anf3 consumes oxygen without generating superoxide or hydrogen peroxide. We predict that Anf3 protects the iron-only nitrogenase from oxygen inactivation by functioning as an oxidase in respiratory protection, with flavodoxin or ferredoxin as the physiological electron donors., (© 2019 Varghese et al.)

Protein film photoelectrochemistry has previously been used to monitor the activity of photosystem II, the water-plastoquinone photooxidoreductase, but the mechanistic information attainable from a three-electrode setup has remained limited. Here we introduce the four-electrode rotating ring disk electrode technique for quantifying light-driven reaction kinetics and mechanistic pathways in real time at the enzyme-electrode interface. This setup allows us to study photochemical H 2 O oxidation in photosystem II and to gain an in-depth understanding of pathways that generate reactive oxygen species. The results show that photosystem II reacts with O 2 through two main pathways that both involve a superoxide intermediate to produce H 2 O 2 . The first pathway involves the established chlorophyll triplet-mediated formation of singlet oxygen, which is followed by its reduction to superoxide at the electrode surface. The second pathway is specific for the enzyme/electrode interface: an exposed antenna chlorophyll is sufficiently close to the electrode for rapid injection of an electron to form a highly reducing chlorophyll anion, which reacts with O 2 in solution to produce O 2 •- . Incomplete H 2 O oxidation does not significantly contribute to reactive oxygen formation in our conditions. The rotating ring disk electrode technique allows the chemical reactivity of photosystem II to be studied electrochemically and opens several avenues for future investigation.

Bicarbonate removal from the nonheme iron at the acceptor side of photosystem II (PSII) was shown recently to shift the midpoint potential of the primary quinone acceptor Q A to a more positive potential and lowers the yield of singlet oxygen ( 1 O 2 ) production. The presence of Q A - results in weaker binding of bicarbonate, suggesting a redox-based regulatory and protective mechanism where loss of bicarbonate or exchange of bicarbonate by other small carboxylic acids may protect PSII against 1 O 2 in vivo under photorespiratory conditions. Here, we compared the properties of Q A in the Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ) photorespiration mutant deficient in peroxisomal HYDROXYPYRUVATE REDUCTASE1 ( hpr1-1 ), which accumulates glycolate in leaves, with the wild type. Photosynthetic electron transport was affected in the mutant, and chlorophyll fluorescence showed slower electron transport between Q A and Q B in the mutant. Glycolate induced an increase in the temperature maximum of thermoluminescence emission, indicating a shift of the midpoint potential of Q A to a more positive value. The yield of 1 O 2 production was lowered in thylakoid membranes isolated from hpr1-1 compared with the wild type, consistent with a higher potential of Q A /Q A - In addition, electron donation to photosystem I was affected in hpr1-1 at higher light intensities, consistent with diminished electron transfer out of PSII. This study indicates that replacement of bicarbonate at the nonheme iron by a small carboxylate anion occurs in plants in vivo. These findings suggested that replacement of the bicarbonate on the nonheme iron by glycolate may represent a regulatory mechanism that protects PSII against photooxidative stress under low-CO 2 conditions., (© 2018 American Society of Plant Biologists. All rights reserved.)

Photosystems I and II convert solar energy into the chemical energy that powers life. Chlorophyll a photochemistry, using red light (680 to 700 nm), is near universal and is considered to define the energy "red limit" of oxygenic photosynthesis. We present biophysical studies on the photosystems from a cyanobacterium grown in far-red light (750 nm). The few long-wavelength chlorophylls present are well resolved from each other and from the majority pigment, chlorophyll a. Charge separation in photosystem I and II uses chlorophyll f at 745 nm and chlorophyll f (or d) at 727 nm, respectively. Each photosystem has a few even longer-wavelength chlorophylls f that collect light and pass excitation energy uphill to the photochemically active pigments. These photosystems function beyond the red limit using far-red pigments in only a few key positions., (Copyright © 2018 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Factors governing the photoelectrochemical output of photosynthetic microorganisms are poorly understood, and energy loss may occur due to inefficient electron transfer (ET) processes. Here, we systematically compare the photoelectrochemistry of photosystem II (PSII) protein-films to cyanobacteria biofilms to derive: (i) the losses in light-to-charge conversion efficiencies, (ii) gains in photocatalytic longevity, and (iii) insights into the ET mechanism at the biofilm interface. This study was enabled by the use of hierarchically structured electrodes, which could be tailored for high/stable loadings of PSII core complexes and Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 cells. The mediated photocurrent densities generated by the biofilm were 2 orders of magnitude lower than those of the protein-film. This was partly attributed to a lower photocatalyst loading as the rate of mediated electron extraction from PSII in vitro is only double that of PSII in vivo. On the other hand, the biofilm exhibited much greater longevity (>5 days) than the protein-film (<6 h), with turnover numbers surpassing those of the protein-film after 2 days. The mechanism of biofilm electrogenesis is suggested to involve an intracellular redox mediator, which is released during light irradiation.

Microbial biophotovoltaic cells exploit the ability of cyanobacteria and microalgae to convert light energy into electrical current using water as the source of electrons. Such bioelectrochemical systems have a clear advantage over more conventional microbial fuel cells which require the input of organic carbon for microbial growth. However, innovative approaches are needed to address scale-up issues associated with the fabrication of the inorganic (electrodes) and biological (microbe) parts of the biophotovoltaic device. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of using a simple commercial inkjet printer to fabricate a thin-film paper-based biophotovoltaic cell consisting of a layer of cyanobacterial cells on top of a carbon nanotube conducting surface. We show that these printed cyanobacteria are capable of generating a sustained electrical current both in the dark (as a 'solar bio-battery') and in response to light (as a 'bio-solar-panel') with potential applications in low-power devices.

The midpoint potential (E m ) of [Formula: see text], the one-electron acceptor quinone of Photosystem II (PSII), provides the thermodynamic reference for calibrating PSII bioenergetics. Uncertainty exists in the literature, with two values differing by ∼80 mV. Here, we have resolved this discrepancy by using spectroelectrochemistry on plant PSII-enriched membranes. Removal of bicarbonate (HCO 3 - ) shifts the E m from ∼-145 mV to -70 mV. The higher values reported earlier are attributed to the loss of HCO 3 - during the titrations (pH 6.5, stirred under argon gassing). These findings mean that HCO 3 - binds less strongly when Q A -• is present. Light-induced Q A -• formation triggered HCO 3 - loss as manifest by the slowed electron transfer and the upshift in the E m of Q A HCO 3 - -depleted PSII also showed diminished light-induced 1 O 2 formation. This finding is consistent with a model in which the increase in the E m of [Formula: see text] promotes safe, direct [Formula: see text] charge recombination at the expense of the damaging back-reaction route that involves chlorophyll triplet-mediated 1 O 2 formation [Johnson GN, et al. (1995) Biochim Biophys Acta 1229:202-207]. These findings provide a redox tuning mechanism, in which the interdependence of the redox state of Q A and the binding by HCO 3 - regulates and protects PSII. The potential for a sink (CO 2 ) to source (PSII) feedback mechanism is discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

We have investigated the nature of the photocurrent generated by Photosystem II (PSII), the water oxidizing enzyme, isolated from Thermosynechococcus elongatus, when immobilized on nanostructured titanium dioxide on an indium tin oxide electrode (TiO2/ITO). We investigated the properties of the photocurrent from PSII when immobilized as a monolayer versus multilayers, in the presence and absence of an inhibitor that binds to the site of the exchangeable quinone (QB) and in the presence and absence of exogenous mobile electron carriers (mediators). The findings indicate that electron transfer occurs from the first quinone (QA) directly to the electrode surface but that the electron transfer through the nanostructured metal oxide is the rate-limiting step. Redox mediators enhance the photocurrent by taking electrons from the nanostructured semiconductor surface to the ITO electrode surface not from PSII. This is demonstrated by photocurrent enhancement using a mediator incapable of accepting electrons from PSII. This model for electron transfer also explains anomalies reported in the literature using similar and related systems. The slow rate of the electron transfer step in the TiO2 is due to the energy level of electron injection into the semiconducting material being below the conduction band. This limits the usefulness of the present hybrid electrode. Strategies to overcome this kinetic limitation are discussed., (Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This is the first report of the direct electrochemistry of the reductase (PHR) and oxygenase (PHO) components of phenol hydroxylase from Acinetobacter radioresistens S13 studied by cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry. The PHR contains one 2Fe2S cluster and one FAD that mediate the transfer of electrons from NAD(P)H to the non-heme diiron cluster of PHO. Cyclic and differential pulse voltammetry (CV and DPV) on glassy carbon showed two redox pairs with midpoint potentials at +131.5 ± 13 mV and -234 ± 3 mV versus normal hydrogen electrode (NHE). The first redox couple is attributed to the FeS centre, while the second one corresponds to free FAD released by the protein. DPV scans on native and guanidinium chloride treated PHR highlighted the presence of a split signal (ΔE ≈ 100 mV) attributed to heterogeneous properties of the 2Fe2S cluster interacting with the electrode, possibly due to the presence of two protein conformers and consistently with the large peak-to-peak separation and the peak broadening observed in CV. DPV experiments on gold electrodes performed on PHO confirm a consistently higher reduction potential at +396 mV vs. NHE. The positive redox potentials measured by direct electrochemistry for the FeS cluster in PHR and for the non-heme diiron cluster of PHO show that the entire phenol hydroxylase system works at higher potentials than those reported for structurally similar enzymes, for example methane monooxygenases., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2012)

Over the past two decades, a wealth of information on the human cytochrome P450 enzymes and their role in drug metabolism both in vitro and in vivo has been gathered. Our understanding of this area has progressed greatly, but our confidence in the development of quantitative projections of drug interactions, made from in vitro data, is somehow still shaky. There are therefore no doubts in the necessity for reliable and fast methodologies for P450 drug metabolism analysis, capable of providing accurate and precise in vitro data. This paper reports on the first integration of a P450-electrode into a microtiter plate format for the rapid determination of the affinity parameters (K(M)) for a set of known drugs. The most relevant human drug metabolizing cytochromes P450, isoforms 3A4, 2D6, and 2C9, have been covalently bound to a gold electrode via a 10-carboxydecanethiol and 8-hydroxyoctanethiol (1:1) self-assembled monolayer at the bottom of an eight-well microtiter plate. The electrochemical response of the P450-electrode and the performance of the platform have been validated using a set of 30 known drugs with K(M) values spanning from less than 1 to more than 100 μM. The K(M) values obtained using this platform show an excellent error, and their ranking is within the range of those present in the literature determined from conventional incubation experiments with cytochrome P450s 3A4, 2D6, and 2C9.

"Personalized medicine" is a new concept in health care, one aspect of which defines the specificity and dosage of drugs according to effectiveness and safety for each patient. Dosage strongly depends from the rate of metabolism which is primarily regulated by the activity of cytochrome P450. In addition to the need for a genetic characterization of the patients, there is also the necessity to determine the drug-clearance properties of the polymorphic P450 enzyme. To address this issue, human P450 2D6 and 2C9 were engineered and covalently linked to an electrode surface allowing fast, accurate, and reliable measurements of the kinetic parameters of these phase-1 drug metabolizing polymorphic enzymes. In particular, the catalytic activity of P450 2C9 on the electrode surface was found to be improved when expressed from a gene-fusion with flavodoxin from Desulfovibrio vulgaris (2C9/FLD). The results are validated using marker drugs for these enzymes, bufuralol for 2D6, and warfarin for 2C9/FLD. The platform is able to measure the same small differences in K(M), and it allows a fast and reproducible mean to generated the product identified by HPLC from which the k(cat) is calculated.

Improving the electrochemical performance of cytochrome P450 enzymes is highly desirable due to their versatility in the recognition of different biological and xenobiotic compounds. The task poses an exciting challenge because it leads not only to the acquisition of fundamental knowledge on the redox properties of these enzymes, but it also opens opportunities for technological and commercial applications. Interfacing these enzymes to electrode surfaces and electrochemically driving their catalytic cycle has proven to be very difficult. Initial attempts made by several groups included the direct immobilisation of these enzymes on electrode surfaces and omission of their redox partners for simplification of their electron transfer pathway. The data obtained in these cases generally resulted in a high heterogeneous electron transfer rate but without success in terms of detectable substrate turnover. The breakthrough in electrocatalysis has been made when both the electrode and the enzyme have been engineered, in some cases mimicking the natural environment of the microsomal enzymes and the inclusion of their electron transfer partners. This paper reviews and discusses the recent literature on this subject, and highlights the different approaches that have led to an unprecedented advancement of this area of research., (Copyright © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

This paper is the first report of a P450-electrode in a microfluidic format. A 30 μL microfluidic cell was made in poly(methyl methacrylate) containing the inlet, outlet, and reaction chamber with two electrode strips, one of which contains the human cytochrome P450 3A4 covalently bound to gold via a 6-hexanethiol and 7-mercaptoheptanoic acid (1:1) self-assembled monolayer. The electrochemical response of the P450-electrode in the microfluidic cell was tested using four drugs that are known substrates of P450 3A4: quinidine, nifedipine, alosetron and ondansetron. Titration experiments allowed the electrochemical measurements of K(M) for the four drugs, with values of 2.9, 29.1, 113.4, and 114.1 mM, respectively. The K(M) values are found to be in good agreement and correctly ranked with respect to the published literature on human liver microsomes and baculosomes: [ondansetron ≈ alosetron > nifedipine > quinidine]. The results presented in this paper represent a step forward for a rapid evaluation of the interaction of P450 and drug, requiring small volumes of new chemical entities to be tested.

Oriented immobilization of human cytochrome P450 2E1 and its catalytic activity by direct electrochemistry was achieved by engineering two multisite mutants of P450 2E1: MUT261 (C268S-C480S-C488S) and MUT268 (C261S-C480S-C488S). Here, all the exposed cysteines are mutated into serines, with the exception of one (C261 for MUT261 and C268 for MUT268) that is able to link covalently to a modified gold electrode. The P450 2E1 wild type, as well as the two mutants, were immobilized onto gold electrodes using dithio-bismaleimidoethane as a self-assembled monolayer. The catalytic activity of the wild type and of the two cysteine mutants were determined using p-nitrophenol as a substrate, and the amount of the electrocatalysis product (p-nitrocatechol) was determined spectrophotometrically. The amounts of product formed by the mutants on the electrodes were 2-fold to 3-fold higher than those of the wild type. Control experiments performed in solution using the cytochrome P450 reductase as the electron donor show no significant differences in the level of product formed. The higher level of product formation of the two mutants on the electrode is ascribed to the controlled immobilization on the gold surface: the heme electron transfer proximal side is linked to the electrode, while the substrate binding distal side is exposed to the bulk solution. This is the first evidence that the control over the orientation of the human cytochromes P450 is key to maximize the electrocatalytic efficiency of these enzymes.

Investigation of the complex formation and electron transfer kinetics between P450 BMP and flavodoxin was carried out following the suggested involvement of flavodoxin in modulating the electron transfer to BMP in artificial redox chains bound to an electrode surface. While electron transfer measurements show the formation of a tightly bound complex, the NMR data indicate the formation of shortly lived complexes. The measured k(obs) ranged from 24.2 s(-1) to 44.1 s(-1) with k(on) ranging from 0.07 x 10(6) to 1.1 x 10(6) s(-1) M(-1) and K(d) ranging from 300 microM to 24 microM in buffers of different ionic strength. This apparent contradiction is due to the existence of two events in the complex formation prior to electron transfer. A stable complex is initially formed. Within such tightly bound complex, flavodoxin rocks rapidly between different positions. The rocking of the bound flavodoxin between several different orientations gives rise to the transient complexes in fast exchange as observed in the NMR experiments. Docking simulations with two different approaches support the theory that there is no highly specific orientation in the complex, but instead one side of the flavodoxin binds the P450 with high overall affinity but with a number of different orientations. The level of functionality of each orientation is dependent on the distance between cofactors, which can vary between 8 and 25 A, with some of the transient complexes showing distances compatible with the measured electron transfer rate constants.

The mutant S64C of the short-chain flavodoxin from Desulfovibrio vulgaris has been designed to introduce an accessible and reactive group on the protein surface. Crystals have been obtained of both the monomeric and homodimeric forms of the protein, with the cofactor FMN in either the oxidized or the one electron-reduced (semiquinone) state, and the structures have been determined to high resolution. The redox properties of the different species have been investigated and the variations observed with respect to wild type have been related to the structural changes induced by the mutation and S-S bridge formation.

Site-directed mutagenesis and functionalization of gold surfaces have been combined to obtain a stable immobilization of the heme domain of cytochrome P450 BM3 from Bacillus megaterium. Immobilization experiments were carried out using the wild type protein bearing the surface C62 and C156 and the site-directed mutants C62S, the C156S, and the double mutant C62S/C156S (no exposed cysteines). The gold surface was functionalized using two different spacers: cystamine- N-succinimidyl 3-maleimidopropionate and dithio-bismaleimidoethane, both leading to the formation of maleimide-terminated monolayers capable of covalent linkage to cysteine. Tapping mode atomic force microscopy experiments carried out on cystamine- N-succinimidyl 3-maleimidopropionate derivatized gold led to good images with expected molecular heights (5.5-6.0 nm) for the wild type and the C156S mutant. These samples also gave measurable electrochemical signals with midpoint potentials of -48 and -58 mV for the wild type and C156S, respectively. On the other hand, the dithio-bismaleimidoethane spacer led to variability on the molecular heights measured by tapping mode atomic force microscopy and the electrochemical response. This is interpreted in terms of lack of homogeneous dithio-bismaleimidoethane monolayer on gold. Furthermore, results from tapping mode atomic force microscopy show that the double mutant and the C62S did not lead to stably immobilized P450 protein, confirming the necessity of the solvent exposed C62.

Cyclic voltabsorptometry is used for the first time to distinguish and characterize electrochemically the active (P450) and inactive (P420) forms of cytochromes P450 immobilized on an electrode during voltammetry experiments. This was achieved by using the heme domain (BMP) of the bacterial cytochrome P450 BM3 from Bacillus megaterium (CYP102A1) immobilized on mesopouros tin-oxide (SnO2) electrodes. We demonstrate that the formation of either the P450 form or the P420 one can be obtained by modifying the mesoporous electrode surface with polycations with different properties such as polyethylenimmine (PEI) and polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDA). Potential step spectroelectrochemistry allowed measurement of reduction potentials of the active P450 form. Values of -0.39+/-0.01 V and -0.58+/-0.01 V (both versus Ag/AgCl) were calculated for the active P450 form immobilized on the BMP/PDDA-SnO2 and BMP/PEI-SnO2 electrodes, respectively. The cyclic voltabsorptometric experiments showed how, when both the active and inactive forms are present on the PEI film, the inactive P420 species tends to dominate the cyclic voltammetric signal.

This work provides functional data showing that the bacterial CYP102A1 recognises compounds metabolised by human CYP3A4, CYP2E1 and CYP1A2 and is able to catalyse different reactions. Wild-type cytochrome CYP102A1 from Bacillus megaterium is a catalytically self-sufficient enzyme, containing an NADPH-dependent reductase and a P450 haem domain fused in a single polypeptidie chain. An NADPH-dependent method (Tsotsou et al. in Biosens. Bioelectron. 17:119-131, 2002) together with spectroscopic assays were applied to investigate the catalytic activity of CYP102A1 towards 19 xenobiotics, including 17 commercial drugs. These molecules were chosen to represent typical substrates of the five main families of drug-metabolising human cytochromes P450. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis showed that CYP102A1 catalyses the hydroxylation of chlorzoxazone, aniline and p-nitrophenol, as well as the N-dealkylation of propranolol and the dehydrogenation of nifedipine. These drugs are typical substrates of human CYP2E1 and CYP3A4. The KM values calculated for these compounds were in the millimolar range: 1.21+/-0.07 mM for chlorzoxazone, 2.52 +/- 0.08 mM for aniline, 0.81+/-0.04 mM for propranolol. The values of vmax for chlorzoxazone and propranolol were 46.0+/-9.0 and 7.6+/-3.4 nmol min-1 nmol-1, respectively. These values are higher then those measured for the human enzymes. The vmax value for aniline was 9.4+/-1.3 nmol min-1 nmol-1, comparable to that calculated for human cytochromes P450. The functional data were found to be in line with the sequence alignments, showing that the identity percentage of CYP102A1 with CYP3A4 and CYP2E1 is higher than that found for CYP1A2, CYP2C9 and CYP2D6 families.

The membrane-bound human cytochrome P450s have essential roles in the metabolism of endogenous compounds and drugs. Presented here are the results on the construction and characterization of three fusion proteins containing the N-terminally modified human cytochrome P450s CYP2C9, CY2C19 and CYP3A4 fused to the soluble NADPH-dependent oxidoreductase domain of CYP102A1 from Bacillus megaterium. The constructs, CYP2C9/BMR, CYP2C19/BMR and CYP3A4/BMR are well expressed in Escherichia coli as holo proteins. The chimeras can be purified in the absence of detergent and the purified enzymes are both active and correctly folded in the absence of detergent, as demonstrated by circular dichroism and functional studies. Additionally, in comparison with the parent P450 enzyme, these chimeras have greatly improved solubility properties. The chimeras are catalytically self-sufficient and present turnover rates similar to those reported for the native enzymes in reconstituted systems, unlike previously reported mammalian cytochrome P450 fusion proteins. Furthermore the specific activities of these chimeras are not dependent on the enzyme concentration present in the reaction buffer and they do not require the addition of accessory proteins, detergents or phospholipids to be fully active. The solubility, catalytic self-sufficiency and wild-type like activities of these chimeras would greatly simplify the studies of cytochrome P450 mediated drug metabolism in solution.

In this work the catalytic properties of a cytochrome P450 immobilised onto an electrode surface are improved by means of the molecular Lego approach.

Cellular Retinol-Binding Protein type I (CRBP) exhibits very high affinity for its ligand, bound within a buried cavity completely shielded from the outside medium. Three-dimensional structure and backbone dynamics in aqueous solution at neutral pH, either in the absence or in the presence of retinol, fail to represent the protein in a state capable of ligand uptake and release. The question was asked whether changes in the composition of the outside medium might facilitate ligand dissociation. Acidic aqueous solutions and water-alcohol mixtures were selected, among the best described denaturing solvents, to investigate their effects on the stability of the carrier-ligand complex and the conformational state of the protein upon ligand release. Circular dichroism (CD) and fluorescence spectroscopy were used to probe protein secondary and tertiary structure, compactness and retinol dissociation. While in purely aqueous media retinol dissociation parallels the acid-induced denaturation of the carrier, in water-alcohol mixtures it occurs in a range of co-solvent content lower than that required for protein denaturation. In light of these results, it is suggested that local solvent properties in vivo might modulate protein conformation and flexibility and thus play a fundamental role in the control of retinol exchange between carrier and membrane-bound donors and acceptors.

In this paper, we report a spectroelectrochemical investigation of proton-coupled electron transfer in flavodoxin D. vulgaris Hildenborough (Fld). Poly-L-lysine is used to promote the binding of Fld to the nanocrystalline, mesoporous SnO(2) electrodes. Two reversible redox couples of the immobilized Fld are observed electrochemically and are assigned by spectroelectrochemistry to the quinone/semiquinone and semiquinone/hydroquinone couples of the protein's flavin mononucleotide (FMN) redox cofactor. Comparison with control data for free FMN indicates no contamination of the Fld data by dissociated FMN. The quinone/semiquinone and semiquinone/hydroquinone midpoint potentials (E(q/sq) and E(sq/hq)) at pH 7 were determined to be -340 and -585 mV vs Ag/AgCl, in good agreement with the literature. E(q/sq) exhibited a pH dependence of 51 mV/pH. The kinetics of these redox couples were studied using cyclic voltammetry, cyclic voltabsorptometry, and chronoabsorptometry. The semiquinone/quinone reoxidation is found to exhibit slow, potential-independent but pH-sensitive kinetics with a reoxidation rate constant varying from 1.56 s(-)(1) at pH 10 to 0.0074 s(-)(1) at pH 5. The slow kinetics are discussed in terms of a simple kinetics model and are assigned to the reoxidation process being rate limited by semiquinone deprotonation. It is proposed that this slow deprotonation step has the physiological benefit of preventing the undesirable loss of reducing equivalents which results from semiquinone oxidation to quinone.

This communication reports the first electrochemical study of the human P450 2E1 either absorbed or covalently linked to different electrode surfaces. Glassy-carbon and gold electrodes gave reversible electrochemical signals of an active P450 2E1. Molecular modeling of the enzyme helped to rationalize the results. A monolayer coverage was obtained on gold modified with cystamine/maleimide that covalently linked surface accessible cysteines of P450 2E1. The midpoint potential measured for the oriented P450 2E1 was -177 +/- 5 mV comparable to that of the FeIII/FeII of other P450 enzymes. The observed electron-transfer rate for this electrode was 10 s-1. The turnover of the active enzyme was measured with the P450 2E1 specific substrate p-nitrophenol, resulting in a KM of 130 +/- 3 muM and the formation of 2.2 muM of the p-nitrocatechol product upon application of a -300 mV bias.

Cytochrome c-553 from Desulfovibrio vulgaris exhibits a highly exposed heme and an unusually low reduction potential with respect to other c-type cytochromes. Solvent heme exposure has been indicated as one of the most important factors in modulating the midpoint potential of the redox center. To test this hypothesis, a unique surface-exposed cysteine has been substituted for either M23 or G51 to produce the corresponding mutants and allow the formation of homodimers through a specific disulfide bridge. The reduction potentials, determined via spectroelectrochemistry, show an increase from +20 +/- 5 mV for the wt to +88 +/- 5 and +105 +/- 5 mV for the M23C-M23C homodimer and G51C-G51C homodimer, respectively. Chemical denaturation of the homodimers leads to parameters related to the hydrophobicity (m) and the number of buried side chains (n(B)), which suggest a decrease of exposure of the heme as a result of dimerization. These results are consistent with the heme-accessible surface area (ASA) calculated from a computer model of the homodimers. The ASA values show a decrease from 73 A(2) for the wt to 66 and 50 A(2) per heme for the M23C-M23C homodimer and G51C-G51C homodimer, respectively. The trend of the m- and n(B)-values, the degree of solvent accessibility, and the midpoint potential observed upon formation of the homodimers indicate a correlation between the reduction potential values and the exclusion of water from the heme surface.