Ion binding to cytochrome c studied by nuclear magnetic quadrupole relaxation.

The enhancement of the 35Cl- transverse relaxation rate on binding of chloride ions to oxidized and reduced cytochrome c has been studied under conditions of variable sodium chloride concentration, temperature, pH, sodium phosphate, iron hexacyanide, and sodium cyanide concentration. The results revealed the presence of a strong binding site(s) for chloride in both oxidized and reduced cyt c, with a higher affinity in ferrocytochrome c. Competition experiments suggest that these sites also bind iron hexacyanide and phosphate. Cyanide binding to the iron in ferricytochrome c at alkaline and neutral pH was shown to decrease the binding of chloride. The pH dependence of the 35Cl- relaxation rate has been fitted by using literature pK values for ionizable groups. No indications of Na+ binding to oxidized and reduced cytochrome c have been observed by using 23Na+ NMR. Our results suggest that chloride is bound near the exposed heme edge and that the surface structure or dynamics in this region are different in the two oxidation states.