Title
Designed Rubredoxin Miniature in a Fully Artificial Electron Chain Triggered by Visible Light
Author
Chino, Marco, Luigi Franklin Di Costanzo, Linda Leone, Salvatore La Gatta, Antonino Famulari, Mario Chiesa, Angela Lombardi, and Vincenzo Pavone
Year
2023
Journal
Nature Communications
Abstract
Designing metal sites into de novo proteins has significantly improved, recently. However, identifying the minimal coordination spheres, able to encompass the necessary information for metal binding and activity, still represents a great challenge, today. Here, we test our understanding with a benchmark, nevertheless difficult, case. We assemble into a miniature 28-residue protein, the quintessential elements required to fold properly around a FeCys4 redox center, and to function efficiently in electron-transfer. This study addresses a challenge in de novo protein design, as it reports the crystal structure of a designed tetra-thiolate metal-binding protein in sub-Å agreement with the intended design. This allows us to well correlate structure to spectroscopic and electrochemical properties. Given its high reduction potential compared to natural and designed FeCys4-containing proteins, we exploit it as terminal electron acceptor of a fully artificial chain triggered by visible light.
Full Article
Instrument
J-815
Keywords
Metalloproteins