Photoinduced electron transfer from the triplet state of zinc cytochrome c to ferricytochrome b5 is gated by configurational fluctuations of the diprotein complex.

The intracomplex electron-transfer reaction 3Zncyt/b5(III)-->Zncyt+/b5(II) within electrostatic and covalent complexes of zinc(II) cytochrome c and ferricytochrome b5 is studied by laser flash photolysis. Kinetic effects of protein cross-linking and of solution viscosity are interpreted in terms of dynamic mobility of the associated proteins with respect to each other. The rate constant for the monoexponential reaction in the electrostatic complex is 3.5 x 10(5) s-1 in aqueous solution; this value is independent of protein concentration and ionic strength, but it decreases markedly as viscosity is raised by addition of glycerol or sucrose. The multiexponential reaction in the covalent complex was analyzed also in terms of the stretched exponential, exp[-(kt)n]. The best fit requires k = 6.8 x 10(4) s-1 and n = 0.56 in aqueous solution; this rate constant is independent of protein concentration and ionic strength, but it decreases slightly as viscosity is raised. Fitting of the viscosity dependence to a simple two-state kinetic model yields a rate constant of 3.0 x 10(5) s-1 for rearrangement of the electrostatic complex 3Zncyt/b5(III) from the initial docking configuration to a different, more reactive, configuration. The corresponding rate constant for rearrangement of the electrostatic complex 3Zncyt/pc(II) containing plastocyanin, determined previously, is 2.5 x 10(5) s-1. Evidently, the intracomplex reaction in both electrostatic complexes is gated by a rearrangement process.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)