Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Intermolecular biological electron transfer: an electrochemical approach.

Katsumi Niki1, James R Sprinkle, Emanuel Margoliash

  • 1Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. kniki@bilrc.caltech.edu

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
|January 12, 2002
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Electron Tunneling through Pseudomonas aeruginosa Azurins on SAM Gold Electrodes.

Inorganica chimica acta·2009
Same author

Remarkably high activities of testicular cytochrome c in destroying reactive oxygen species and in triggering apoptosis.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2006
Same author

The redox couple of the cytochrome c cyanide complex: the contribution of heme iron ligation to the structural stability, chemical reactivity, and physiological behavior of horse cytochrome c.

Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society·2006
Same author

Mimicking protein-protein electron transfer: voltammetry of Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin and the Thermus thermophilus Cu(A) domain at omega-derivatized self-assembled-monolayer gold electrodes.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2004
Same journal

Energy-equivalent cyclic pulsed electric fields enable reversible membrane permeabilization and sustainable protein release from microalgae.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same journal

Electrochemical monitoring of electroactive compounds secreted by Escherichia coli during the aerobic-to-anaerobic transition.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same journal

Bioelectrochemical Sensing Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Biomarkers.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same journal

Meta-analysis and interpretable machine learning model of organic removal and power generation in photosynthetic microbial fuel cells.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same journal

Surfactant-doped PEDOT films as dual-function bioelectronic coatings with enhanced charge storage capacity and antibiofilm activity.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
Same journal

Design and application of a FA-based molecularly imprinted sensor for screening anti-Fusariumoxysporum substances from Lanzhou lily endophytes.

Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands)·2026
See all related articles

Electron transfer rates between gold electrodes and immobilized cytochrome c depend on alkanethiol chain length. Short chains limit electron transfer due to a protein rearrangement, suggesting lysine-13 is crucial for efficient electron transfer.

Area of Science:

  • Electrochemistry
  • Biophysics
  • Surface Science

Background:

  • Cytochrome c is a key protein in cellular respiration and electron transfer.
  • Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are widely used to functionalize electrode surfaces.
  • Understanding electron transfer at bio-electrode interfaces is crucial for biosensor development.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate electron transfer (ET) rates between a gold electrode and immobilized cytochrome c.
  • To determine the influence of alkanethiol chain length on ET rates.
  • To elucidate the mechanism of rate limitation in short-chain alkanethiols.

Main Methods:

  • Potential modulated electroreflectance spectroscopy was used to measure ET rates.
  • Cytochrome c was immobilized on gold electrodes via alkanethiol SAMs with varying chain lengths.

Related Experiment Videos

  • A mutant cytochrome c (RC9-K13A) was used to probe the role of lysine-13.

    • Main Results:

    • Electron transfer rates showed a linear dependence on chain length for long alkanethiols.
    • Electron transfer rates became independent of chain length for short alkanethiols.
    • A mutant cytochrome c with lysine-13 replaced by alanine exhibited ET rates over six orders of magnitude lower than native cytochrome c.

    Conclusions:

    • Electron transfer through short alkyl chains is limited by a protein conformational rearrangement preceding the ET event.
    • This rearrangement, termed "gating," involves cytochrome c shifting to a configuration that facilitates efficient ET pathways.
    • Lysine-13 of cytochrome c is proposed to be critical for facilitating efficient electron transfer to the carboxylate terminus.