[Chemical modification of ferricytochrome c by N-(2,2',5,5'-tetramethyl-3-carboxypyrroline-1-oxyl)-imidazole].

Chemical modification of pig heart ferricytochrome C by the paramagentic analog of N-acetylimidazole-N-(2,2',5,5'-tetramethyl-3-carboxypyrroline-1-oxyl)-imidazole has been studied. Two main modified preparations, both with the single spin label per molecule, have been isolated by means of chromatography on CM-Sephadex C-25. The study of UV-difference spectra of the SL-preparations versus native Cyt C, the spectrophotometric titration of the tyrosine residues in modified proteins and the study of their reaction with hydroxylamine allow to conclude that one of these preparations (fraction II) is lysine modified Cyt C-SL(Lys)-Cyt C and the other (fraction III) is tyrosine modified protein-SL(Tyr)-Cyt C. From the present results and the data available in literature the most probable location of the modification sites in the three-dimentional structure of Cyt C is Tyr-74 in SL (Tyr)-Cyt C and one of the neighbouring lysil residues Lys 72 or Lys 73 in SL (Lys)-Cyt C on the molecular surface. From the absorbtion and CD-spectra of the modified and native Cyt C in the spectral interval 190--450 nm and from the high resolution PMR data the conclusion has been made that the chemical modification does not alter the immediate vicinity of the heme group and the molecular structure of Cyt C as a whole. Therefore both SL-modified preparations might be useful for the conformational and functional investigations of Cyt C.