Electron-transfer chain in respiratory complex I

abstract: Complex I is a part of the respiration energy chain converting the redox energy into the cross-membrane proton gradient. The electron-transfer chain of iron-sulfur cofactors within the water-soluble peripheral part of the complex is responsible for the delivery of electrons to the proton pumping subunit. The protein is porous to water penetration and the hydration level of the cofactors changes when the electron is transferred along the chain. High reaction barriers and trapping of the electrons at the iron-sulfur cofactors are prevented by the combination of intense electrostatic noise produced by the protein-water interface with the high density of quantum states in the iron-sulfur clusters caused by spin interactions between paramagnetic iron atoms. The combination of these factors substantially lowers the activation barrier for electron transfer compared to the prediction of the Marcus theory, bringing the rate to the experimentally established range. The unique role of iron-sulfur clusters as electron-transfer cofactors is in merging protein-water fluctuations with quantum-state multiplicity to allow low activation barriers and robust operation. Water plays a vital role in electron transport energetics by electrowetting the cofactors in the chain upon arrival of the electron. A general property of a protein is to violate the fluctuation-dissipation relation through nonergodic sampling of its landscape. High functional efficiency of redox enzymes is a direct consequence of nonergodicity.The final version of this article, as published in Scientific Reports, can be viewed online at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-05779-

Electron Transfer in Proteins

Electron-transfer (ET) reactions are key steps in a diverse array of biological transformations ranging from photosynthesis to aerobic respiration. A powerful theoretical formalism has been developed that describes ET rates in terms of two parameters: the nuclear reorganization [lambda] energy (1) and the electronic-coupling strength (HAB). Studies of ET reactions in ruthenium-modified proteins have probed [lambda] and HAB in several metalloproteins (cytochrome c, myoglobin, azurin). This work has shown that protein reorganization energies are sensitive to the medium surrounding the redox sites and that an aqueous environment, in particular, leads to large reorganization energies. Analyses of electronic-coupling strengths suggest that the efficiency of long-range ET depends on the protein secondary structure: [beta]sheets appear to mediate coupling more efficiently than [alpha]-helical structures, and hydrogen bonds play a critical role in both

Path Integral Approach to the Non-Relativistic Electron Charge Transfer

A path integral approach has been generalized for the non-relativistic electron charge transfer processes. The charge transfer - the capture of an electron by an ion passing another atom or more generally the problem of rearrangement collisions is formulated in terms of influence functionals. It has been shown that the electron charge transfer process can be treated either as electron transition problem or as elastic scattering of ion and atom in the some effective potential field. The first-order Born approximation for the electron charge transfer cross section has been reproduced to prove the adequacy of the path integral approach for this problem.Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular & Optical, vol.34, 200

Electron Transfer in Porphyrin Complexes in Different Solvents

The electron transfer in different solvents is investigated for systems consisting of donor, bridge and acceptor. It is assumed that vibrational relaxation is much faster than the electron transfer. Electron transfer rates and final populations of the acceptor state are calculated numerically and in an approximate fashion analytically. In wide parameter regimes these solutions are in very good agreement. The theory is applied to the electron transfer in ${\rm H_2P-ZnP-Q}$ with free-base porphyrin (${\rm H_2P}$) being the donor, zinc porphyrin (${\rm ZnP}$) the bridge, and quinone (${\rm Q}$) the acceptor. It is shown that the electron transfer rates can be controlled efficiently by changing the energy of the bridging level which can be done by changing the solvent. The effect of the solvent is determined for different models.Comment: 28 pages + 5 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Chem. For more details see the Ph. D. thesis in quant-ph archive http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/quant-ph/000100

Thermally conducting electron transfer polymers

New polymeric material exhibits excellent physical shock protection, high electrical resistance, and thermal conductivity. It is especially useful for electronic circuitry, such as subminiaturization of components and modular construction of circuits