Dissociation and auto-oxidation of hemerythrin induced by SH-modification: a kinetic study.

Hemerythrin from Siphonosoma cumanense has a trimeric structure consisting of identical subunits, which have no cooperativity nor Bohr effect on oxygen-binding. The trimer was dissociated into its monomers by the modification of the SH group of its cysteines with p-chloromercuriphenylsulfonic acid (PCMPS), which was monitored by stopped-flow of both spectrophotomeric and small angle X-ray scattering methods. The results showed that the process involved sequential modification of the SH groups, dissociation into monomers, and auto-oxidation of ferrous iron in the active center. The modification of the SH groups with PCMPS followed second-order kinetics with a rate constant of 1.8 M-1.s-1. The dissociation and auto-oxidation followed first-order kinetics with rate constants of 4 X 10(-3) s-1 and 5 X 10(-4) s-1, respectively. The obtained rate of auto-oxidation was much faster than that in the native state. These findings lead to the conclusion that the trimeric state of S. cumanense hemerythrin is necessary to prevent auto-oxidation.