A Resonance Raman Enhancement Mechanism for Axial Vibrational Modes in the Pyridine Adduct of Myoglobin Proximal Cavity Mutant (H93G)

The proximal cavity mutant of myoglobin consists of a mutation of the proximal histidine to glycine (H93G), which permits exogenous ligands to bind to the heme iron. A non-native pyridine ligand can ligate to the heme to yield a five-coordinate adduct, H93G­(Pyr), that cannot be formed freely in solution since the six-coordinate bis-pyridine adduct is more stable than the five-coordinate adduct. We have used resonance Raman spectroscopy in the Soret band region of the heme to study the enhancement of axial vibrations of bound pyridine in the H93G­(Pyr) adduct. The observation that the pyridine ring breathing mode (ν₁) and the symmetric ring stretching (ν₃) modes are enhanced under these conditions is explained by a computational approach that shows that coupling of the π-system of the heme with the p-orbitals of the pyridine is analogous to π-backbonding in diatomic ligand adducts of heme proteins. The result has the broader significance that it suggests that the resonance enhancement of pyridine modes could be an important aspect of Raman scattering of pyridine on conducting surfaces such as those studied in surface enhanced Raman scattering experiments