Investigating metalloenzyme reactions using electrochemical sweeps and steps: Fine control and measurements with reactants ranging from ions to gases

Protein film voltammetry is a powerful method for probing the chemistry of redox-active sites in metalloproteins. The technique affords precise potential control over a tiny quantity of material that is manipulated on an electrode surface, providing information on ligand- or metal-exchange reactions coupled to electron transfer. This is illustrated by examples of transformations of the iron-sulfur clusters in ferredoxins. Protein film voltammetry is particularly advantageous in studies of metalloenzymes for which the current response is proportional to catalytic activity: kinetic data of extremely high signal/noise ratio are obtained for highly active enzymes. We present a series of interesting examples in which catalytic activity varies in unusual ways with applied potential, surveying information that can be obtained from cyclic voltammetry and then looking beyond this method to controlled potential-step experiments that yield kinetic and mechanistic details. Recent results on the voltammetry of the highly active [NiFe]-hydrogenase from Allochromatium vinosum illustrate how it is possible to use the precise kinetic information from potential-step experiments to diagnose subtle details of transformations between catalytically active and inactive states of an enzyme. Protein film voltammetry thus complements spectroscopic techniques and other physical methods, revealing the chemistry of systems that might appear intractable or convoluted by other means.