Spiers Memorial Lecture: activating metal sites for biological electron transfer

Metal sites in biology often exhibit unique spectroscopic features that reflect novel geometric and electronic structures imposed by the protein that are key to reactivity. The blue copper active site involved in long range, rapid biological electron transfer is a classic example. This review presents an overview of both traditional and synchrotron based spectroscopic methods and their coupling to electronic structure calculations to understand the unique features of the blue copper active site, their contributions to function and the role of the protein in determining the geometric and electronic structure of the active site (called the "entatic state"). The relation of this active site to other biological electron transfer sites is further developed. In particular, ultrafast XFEL spectroscopy is used to evaluate the methionine-S-Fe bond in cytochrome c, and its entatic control by the protein in determining function (electron transfer vs. apoptosis).