X-ray-induced lysis of the Fe-CO bond in carbonmonoxy-myoglobin

By using X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy, we show that under prolonged exposure to Synchrotron X-rays, at T10 K, the Fe-heme in carbonmonoxy-myoglobin (MbCO) undergoes a slow two-state transition process. The final spectrum is nearly identical to that of the classical photoproduct (Mb*CO) obtained by UV-visible light illumination at 15 K. By increasing the temperature, the starting spectrum of MbCO is recovered at T100 K, demonstrating that the process is reversible and no damage occurred at the heme site in the time course of the experiment. Thus, the overall X-ray-induced process at low temperature is identical to the well-known (light-induced) photolysis of CO-hemeproteins.