A systematic study of the influence of peptide modification of a gold electrode on the cyclic voltammetry of pseudoazurin from Alcaligenes faecalis strain S-6

The influence of peptide-protein interactions on the electrochemistry of copper-containing pseudoazurin from Alcaligenes faecalis strain S-6 has been investigated by covalently binding cysteine-containing hexapeptides to a gold electrode surface. The hexapeptides contain three cysteines in the same positions with the remaining amino acids varied to give mixed charge (lysine, threonine, alanine), positive (lysine), overall neutral (alanine), and negative (glutamate) chemically modified electrode surfaces. These systematic variations in the amino acid sequence lead to large variations in voltammetric behavior for the Cu(II) --> Cu(I) heterogeneous pseudoazurin redox process encompassing fully reversible and diffusional, transitionally adsorbed, or strongly adsorbed forms of voltammetry. The variations in voltammetric behavior may be related to electrostatic interactions between the charges from the hexapeptide electrode modifiers and surface charges of pseudoazurin. A possible description of the pseudoazurin-electrode surface interaction is given.