The structure of carbonyl horseradish peroxidase:: spectroscopic and kinetic characterization of the carbon monoxide complexes of His-42→Leu and Arg-38→Leu mutants

Horseradish peroxidase isoenzyme C (HRPC) mutants were constructed in order to understand the involvement of two key distal heme cavity residues, histidine 42 and arginine 38, in the formation and structure of the carbon monoxide complex of HRPC (carbonyl HRPC). The rates of CO binding to the wild-type glycosylated and non-glycosylated recombinant (HRPC*) ferrous enzymes were essentially identical and exhibited the same pH dependence with pK(a)s at 7.4 and 4.0. Data obtained with the His-42 --> Leu [(H42L)HRPC*)] and Arg-38 --> Leu [(R38L)HRPC*] mutants allowed the pk(a) at 7.4 in ferrous HRPC to be assigned to His-42. The infra-red and electronic absorption spectra of HRPC-CO, HRPC*-CO, (R38L)HRPC*-CO and (H42L)HRPC*-CO have been investigated over the pH range 3.0-10.0, HRPC*-CO exhibited two nu(CO) bands at 1934 cm(-1) and 1905 cm(-1) whose relative intensity changed with pH, showing an acidic and a basic pK(a) as previously reported for HRPC [IE Holzbaur, AM English, AA Ismail (1996) J Am Chem Soc 118:3354-3359]. (H42L)HRPC*-CO and (R38L)HRPC*-CO exhibited single infra-red bands at 1924.2 cm(-1) (pH 7.0) and 1941.5 cm(-1) (pH 5.0) respectively. Acidic and alkaline pK(a)s were determined from shifts in the infra-red frequencies and by UV-visible spectrophotometry at the Soret maxima, (H42L)HRPC*-CO exhibited a pK(a) at similar to pH 4.0 but no alkaline pK(a). (R38L)HRPC*-CO exhibited a single pK(a) at pH 6.5. Shifts of 2-3 cm(-1) in nu(CO) with (H42L)HRPC*-CO in D2O show that a distal residue is H-bonding to the CO in this variant at both pD 7.5 and 3.9. However, with (R38L)HRPC*-CO, only a small shift of the nu(CO) band was observed at pD 5.5. The results are consistent with the involvement of Arg-38 in H-bonding to the CO ligand in HRPC and with His-42 modulating the distribution of carbonyl HRPC conformers below pH 8.7. These data are discussed in terms of the importance of distal pocket polarity in HRPC. It is concluded that His-42 can have a pK(a) between 4.0 and 8.7 depending on its environment and the nature of the distal ligand at position 38. This enables His-42 to carry out multiple functions during the catalytic cycle of HRPC.