Relationships of ligand binding, redox properties, and protonation in Coprinus cinereus peroxidase

The pH dependence of the redox potentials and kinetics for CO association and dissociation was determined between pH 3.0 and 13.0 at 25 °C for the wild-type Coprinus cinereus fungal peroxidase and for a site-directed mutant in which Asp²⁴⁵, which is H-bonded to N^δ of the imidazole of the proximal His¹⁸³, was substituted with Asn. The determination of these functional properties allowed this information to be merged in a self-consistent fashion and to formulate for the first time a complete scheme employing the minimum number of groups required to describe the whole proton-linked behavior of both redox and ligand binding properties. The overall pH dependence can be accounted for by four redox- and ligand-linked groups. The proximal H-bond, which is strictly conserved in all peroxidases, will still be present in the site-specific mutant, but will no longer have an ionic character, and this event will bring about an alteration of redox equilibria and CO binding kinetics, envisaging a relevant role played by this H-bond also in modulating redox properties and ligand binding equilibria.