The Reactions of O2 and NO with Mixed-Valence ba3 Cytochrome c Oxidase from Thermus thermophilus

Abstract Earlier CO-flow-flash experiments on the fully reduced Thermus thermophilus ba3 (Tt ba3) cytochrome oxidase revealed that O2 binding was slowed down by a factor of 10 in the presence of carbon monoxide (CO) (Szundi et al., 2010, PNAS 107, 21010-21015). The goal of the current study is to explore whether the long apparent lifetime (∼50 ms) of the CuB+-CO complex generated upon photolysis of the CO-bound mixed-valence Tt ba3 (Koutsoupakis et al., 2019, Acc. Chem. Res. 52, 1380-1390) interferes with O2 and NO binding and the ability of CuB to act as an electron donor during O-O bond splitting. The CO recombination, NO binding, and the reaction of mixed-valence Tt ba3 with O2 following the photodissociation of CO were investigated using time-resolved optical absorption spectroscopy using photolabile O2 and nitric oxide (NO) carriers. No electron backflow was detected following photolysis of the mixed-valence CO-bound Tt ba3. The rate of O2 and NO binding was two times slower than in the fully reduced enzyme in the presence of CO and 20 times slower than in the absence of CO. The purported long-lived CuB+-CO complex did not prevent O-O bond splitting and the resulting PM formation, which was significantly faster (5-10 times) than in the bovine heart enzyme. We propose that O2 binding to heme a3 in Tt ba3 causes CO to dissociate from CuB+ in a concerted manner through steric and/or electronic effects, thus allowing CuB+ to act as an electron donor in the mixed-valence enzyme. The significantly faster O2 binding and O-O bond cleavage in Tt ba3 compared to analogous steps in the aa3 oxidases could reflect evolutionary adaptation of the enzyme to the microaerobic conditions of the T. thermophilus HB8 species.