Magnetic circular dichroism spectroscopy as a probe of the structures of the metal sites in metalloproteins.

Magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) is a powerful probe of the electronic and geometric structures of metal centres in metalloproteins. MCD has provided significant insight into the nature of the axial donors at haem centres and, more recently, sophisticated methods for the analysis of MCD spectra have had a major impact on the study of the electronic structures of the ground states of a range of Cu, non-haem iron and Mo-containing active sites. This detail, together with data from other complimentary spectroscopies, has played a major role in defining the chemistry underpinning the catalysis achieved by these metal centres.