A distinctive electrocatalytic response from the cytochrome c peroxidase of nitrosomonas europaea

Here the cytochrome c peroxidase (CcP) from Nitrosomonas europaea is examined using the technique of catalytic protein film voltammetry. Submonolayers of the bacterial diheme enzyme at a pyrolytic graphite edge electrode give catalytic, reductive signals in the presence of the substrate hydrogen peroxide. The resulting waveshapes indicate that CcP is bound non-covalently in a highly active configuration. The native enzyme has been shown to possess two heme groups of low and high potential (L and H, -260 and +450 mV versus hydrogen, respectively), and here we find that the catalytic waves of the N. europaea enzyme have a midpoint potential of >500 mV and a shape that corresponds to a 1-electron process. The signals increase in magnitude with hydrogen peroxide concentration, revealing Michaelis-Menten kinetics and K(m) = 55 microm. The midpoint potentials shift with substrate concentration, indicating the electrochemically active species observed in our data corresponds to a catalytic species. The potentials also shift with respect to pH, and the pH dependence is interpreted in terms of a two pK(a) model for proton binding. Together the data show that the electrochemistry of the N. europaea cytochrome c peroxidase is unlike other peroxidases studied to date, including other bacterial enzymes. This is discussed in terms of a catalytic model for the N. europaea enzyme and compared with other cytochrome c peroxidases.