title: Transient and stationary spectroscopy of cytochrome c: ultrafast internal conversion controls photoreduction.
abstract: Photoreduction of cytochrome c (Cyt c) has been reinvestigated using femtosecond-to-nanosecond transient absorption and stationary spectroscopy. Femtosecond spectra of oxidized Cyt c, recorded in the probe range 270-1000 nm, demonstrate similar evolution upon 266 or 403 nm excitation: an ultrafast 0.3 ps internal conversion followed by a 4 ps vibrational cooling. Late transient spectra after 20 ps, from the cold ground-state chromophore, reveal a small but measurable signal from reduced Cyt c. The yield phi for Fe3+-->Fe2+ photoreduction is measured to be phi(403) = 0.016 and phi(266) = 0.08 for 403 and 266 nm excitation. These yields lead to a guess of the barrier E(f)(A) = 55 kJ mol(-1) for thermal ground-state electron transfer (ET). Nanosecond spectra initially show the typical absorption from reduced Cyt c and then exhibit temperature-dependent sub-microsecond decays (0.5 micros at 297 K), corresponding to a barrier E(A)(b) = 33 kJ mol(-1) for the back ET reaction and a reaction energy DeltaE = 22 kJ mol(-1). The nanosecond transients do not decay to zero on a second time scale, demonstrating the stability of some of the reduced Cyt c. The yields calculated from this stable reduced form agree with quasistationary reduction yields. Modest heating of Cyt c leads to its efficient thermal reduction as demonstrated by differential stationary absorption spectroscopy. In summary, our results point to ultrafast internal conversion of oxidized Cyt c upon UV or visible excitation, followed by Fe-porphyrin reduction due to thermal ground-state ET as the prevailing mechanism.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Physical Chemistry, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany.
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Löwenich
authors.forename: Karl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kleinermanns
authors.forename: Venugopal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Karunakaran
authors.forename: Sergey Alexander
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Kovalenko
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045304:Cytochromes c / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism*; D006736:Horses; D007700:Kinetics; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D010777:Photochemistry; D013053:Spectrophotometry; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D045304:Cytochromes c