1H- and 13C-NMR investigation of redox-state-dependent and temperature-dependent conformation changes in horse cytochrome c.

The redox-state dependent changes in chemical shift, which have been measured for almost 100 CHn groups in the 13C-NMR spectra of horse cytochrome c [Santos, H., and Turner, D. L. (1992) Eur. J. Biochem. 206, 721-728], have been used to investigate the nature of the redox-related change in conformation. Apart from the haem and its axial ligands, the shifts are found to be dominated by the electron-nuclear dipolar coupling in the oxidised form, as was the case in 1H-NMR studies. These pseudocontact shifts are well described by using an empirically determined magnetic susceptibility tensor in conjunction with atomic coordinates for the horse cytochrome c. The groups which fit least well are located in the vicinity of Trp59. Comparison between 1H and 13C shifts and their temperature dependence shows that the differences from expectation based on a single structure for both oxidation states are caused largely by changes in the diamagnetic contribution to the chemical shifts. Since these are different for 1H and 13C resonances they indicate, independently from crystal structure data, some redox-related movement of the protein under the haem. The significance of these results for understanding electron transfer pathways is discussed. Finally, the temperature dependence of the pseudocontact shifts in the range 30-50 degrees C is shown to be anomalous. Approximately half of the anomalous effect may be attributed to Zeeman mixing of the electronic wavefunctions with a spin-orbit coupling constant lambda = 241 cm-1, while the other half is attributed to thermal expansion of the protein.