title: Spectroscopic and density functional theory studies of the blue-copper site in M121SeM and C112SeC azurin: Cu-Se versus Cu-S bonding.
abstract: S K-edge X-ray absorption, UV-vis absorption, magnetic circular dichroism (MCD), and resonance Raman spectroscopies are used to investigate the electronic structure differences among WT, M121SeM, and C112SeC Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P.a) azurin. A comparison of S K-edge XAS of WT and M121SeM azurin and a CuII-thioether model complex shows that the 38% S character in the ground state wave function of the blue-copper (BC) sites solely reflects the Cu-SCys bond. Resonance Raman (rR) data on WT and C112SeC azurin give direct evidence for the kinematic coupling between the Cu-SCys stretch and the cysteine deformation modes in WT azurin, which leads to multiple features in the rR spectrum of the BC site. The UV-vis absorption and MCD data on WT, M121SeM, and C112SeC give very similar C0/D0 ratios, indicating that the C-term MCD intensity mechanism involves Cu-centered spin-orbit coupling (SOC). The spectroscopic data combined with density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that SCys and SeCys have similar covalent interactions with Cu at their respective bond lengths of 2.1 and 2.3 A. This reflects the similar electronegativites of S and Se in the thiolate/selenolate ligand fragment and explains the strong spectroscopic similarities between WT and C112SeC azurin.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Ritimukta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sarangi
authors.forename: Serge I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Gorelsky
authors.forename: Lipika
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Basumallick
authors.forename: Hee Jung
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Russell C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Pratt
authors.forename: T Daniel P
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Stack
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Keith O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Hodgson
authors.forename: Britt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hedman
authors.forename: Edward I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Solomon
mesh_terms: D001400:Azurin / Q000737:chemistry*; D001665:Binding Sites; D019187:Cadmium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D002942:Circular Dichroism; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry*; D008024:Ligands; D008280:Magnetics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D011789:Quantum Theory; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D013052:Spectrometry, X-Ray Emission / Q000379:methods; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet / Q000379:methods; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D019187:Cadmium Compounds; D008024:Ligands; D018036:Selenium Compounds; D001400:Azurin; D003300:Copper; C058667:cadmium selenide; C017846:cupric sulfide