Intraprotein electron transfer and proton dynamics during photoactivation of DNA photolyase from E. coli: Review and new insights from an "inverse" deuterium isotope effect.
Résumé
We review our work on electron transfer and proton dynamics during photoactivation in DNA photolyase from E. coli and discuss a recent theoretical study on this issue. In addition, we present unpublished data on the charge recombination between the fully reduced FADH- and the neutral (deprotonated) radical of the solvent exposed tryptophan W306. We found a pronounced acceleration with decreasing pH and an inverse deuterium isotope effect (kH/kD=0.35 at pL 6.5) and interpret it in a model of a fast protonation equilibrium for the W306 radical. Due to this fast equilibrium, two parallel recombination channels contribute differently at different pH values: one where reprotonation of the W306 radical is followed by electron transfer from FADH- (electron transfer time constant tet in the order of 10-50 µs), and one where electron transfer from FADH- (tet=25 ms) is followed by reprotonation of the W306 anion. Cop. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.