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Article
Observation of terahertz vibrations in Pyrococcus furiosus rubredoxin via impulsive coherent vibrational spectroscopy and nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy - interpretation by molecular mechanics
Journal of inorganic biochemistry
  • M. L. Tan
  • A. R. Bizzarri
  • Y. Xiao
  • S. Cannistraro
  • T. Ichiye
  • C. Manzoni
  • G. Cerullo
  • M. W. Adams
  • Francis E. Jenney, Jr., Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine
  • S. P. Cramer
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2007
Disciplines
Abstract

We have used impulsive coherent vibrational spectroscopy (ICVS) to study the Fe(S-Cys)4 site in oxidized rubredoxin (Rd) from Pyrococcus furiosus (Pf). In this experiment, a 15 fs visible laser pulse is used to coherently pump the sample to an excited electronic state, and a second <10 fs pulse is used to probe the change in transmission as a function of the time delay. PfRd was observed to relax to the ground state by a single exponential decay with time constants of ∼255-275 fs. Superimposed on this relaxation are oscillations caused by coherent excitation of vibrational modes in both excited and ground electronic states. Fourier transformation reveals the frequencies of these modes. The strongest ICV mode with 570 nm excitation is the symmetric Fe-S stretching mode near 310 cm-1, compared to 313 cm-1 in the low temperature resonance Raman. If the rubredoxin is pumped at 520 nm, a set of strong bands occurs between 20 and 110 cm-1. Finally, there is a mode at ∼500 cm-1 which is similar to features near 508 cm-1 in blue Cu proteins that have been attributed to excited state vibrations. Normal mode analysis using 488 protein atoms and 558 waters gave calculated spectra that are in good agreement with previous nuclear resonance vibrational spectra (NRVS) results. The lowest frequency normal modes are identified as collective motions of the entire protein or large segments of polypeptide. Motion in these modes may affect the polar environment of the redox site and thus tune the electron transfer functions in rubredoxins. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Comments

This article was published in Journal of inorganic biochemistry, Volume 101, Issue 3, Pages 375-384.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2006.09.031.

Copyright © 2007 Elsevier.

Citation Information
M. L. Tan, A. R. Bizzarri, Y. Xiao, S. Cannistraro, et al.. "Observation of terahertz vibrations in Pyrococcus furiosus rubredoxin via impulsive coherent vibrational spectroscopy and nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy - interpretation by molecular mechanics" Journal of inorganic biochemistry Vol. 101 (2007) p. 375 - 384
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/francis_jenney/24/