Effect on intrinsic peroxidase activity of substituting coevolved residues from Omega-loop C of human cytochrome c into yeast iso-1-cytochrome c.
Frederick, A.K., Thompson, S.L., Vakharia, Z.M., Cherney, M.M., Lei, H., Evenson, G., Bowler, B.E.(2022) J Inorg Biochem 232: 111819-111819
- PubMed: 35428021 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2022.111819
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
7MRI - PubMed Abstract: 
Naturally-occurring variants of human cytochrome c (Cytc) that induce thrombocytopenia IV occur within Ω-loop C (residues 40-57). These variants enhance the peroxidase activity of human Cytc apparently by facilitating access to the heme by destabilizing Ω-loops C and D (residues 70-85). Given the importance of peroxidase activity in the early stages of apoptosis, we identified three sites with the EVmutation algorithm in or near Ω-loop C that coevolve and differ between yeast iso-1-Cytc and human Cytc. We prepared iso-1-Cytc variants with all possible combinations of the S40T, V57I and N63T substitutions to determine if these residues decrease the peroxidase activity of iso-1-Cytc to that of human Cytc producing an effective off state for a peroxidase signaling switch. At pH 6 and above, all variants significantly decreased peroxidase activity. However, the correlation of peroxidase activity with local and global stability, expected if cooperative unfolding of Ω-loops C and D is required for peroxidase activity, was generally poor. The m-values derived from the guanidine hydrochloride dependence of the kinetics of imidazole binding to horse Cytc, which is well-characterized by native-state hydrogen exchange methods, and K72A/K73A/K79A iso-1-Cytc show that local structural fluctuations and not subglobal cooperative unfolding of Ω-loops C and D are sufficient to permit binding of a small molecule like peroxide to the heme. A 2.46 Å structure of N63T iso-1-Cytc identifies a change to a hydrogen bond network linking Ω-loops C and D that could modulate the local fluctuations needed for the intrinsic peroxidase activity of Cytc.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, United States; Center for Biomolecular Structure & Dynamics, University of Montana, Missoula, MT 59812, United States.