g-Tensor Directions in the Protein Structural Frame of Hyperthermophilic Archaeal Reduced Rieske-Type Ferredoxin Explored by 13C Pulsed Electron Paramagnetic Resonance

Biochemistry. 2018 Jul 17;57(28):4074-4082. doi: 10.1021/acs.biochem.8b00438. Epub 2018 Jun 21.

Abstract

Interpretation of magnetic resonance data in the context of structural and chemical biology requires prior knowledge of the g-tensor directions for paramagnetic metallo-cofactors with respect to the protein structural frame. Access to this information is often limited by the strict requirement of suitable protein crystals for single-crystal electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) measurements or the reliance on protons (with ambiguous locations in crystal structures) near the paramagnetic metal site. Here we develop a novel pulsed EPR approach with selective 13Cβ-cysteine labeling of model [2Fe-2S] proteins to help bypass these problems. Analysis of the 13Cβ-cysteine hyperfine tensors reproduces the g-tensor of the Pseudomonas putida ISC-like [2Fe-2S] ferredoxin (FdxB). Its application to the hyperthermophilic archaeal Rieske-type [2Fe-2S] ferredoxin (ARF) from Sulfolobus solfataricus, for which the single-crystal EPR approach was not feasible, supports the best-fit g x-, g z-, and g y-tensor directions of the reduced cluster as nearly along Fe-Fe, S-S, and the cluster plane normal, respectively. These approximate principal directions of the reduced ARF g-tensor, explored by 13C pulsed EPR, are less skewed from the cluster molecular axes and are largely consistent with those previously determined by single-crystal EPR for the cytochrome bc1-associated, reduced Rieske [2Fe-2S] center. This suggests the approximate g-tensor directions are conserved across the phylogenetically and functionally divergent Rieske-type [2Fe-2S] proteins.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Archaeal Proteins / chemistry*
  • Bacterial Proteins / chemistry
  • Carbon Isotopes / analysis
  • Crystallography, X-Ray
  • Cysteine / analysis
  • Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy / methods*
  • Ferredoxins / chemistry*
  • Iron-Sulfur Proteins / chemistry
  • Models, Molecular
  • Protein Conformation
  • Pseudomonas putida / chemistry
  • Sulfolobus solfataricus / chemistry*

Substances

  • Archaeal Proteins
  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Carbon Isotopes
  • Ferredoxins
  • Iron-Sulfur Proteins
  • Carbon-13
  • Cysteine