In this pape
r, we desc
ribe the fi
rst obse
rvations of photoinitiated inte
rp
rotein elect
ron t
ransfe
r(ET) within sol-gels. We have encapsulated th
ree p
rotein-p
rotein complexes, specifically selected becausethey
rep
resent a full
range of affinities, a
re sensitive to diffe
rent types of dynamic p
rocesses, and thus a
reexpected to
respond diffe
rently to sol-gel encapsulation. The th
ree systems a
re (i) the [Zn, Fe
3+L] mixed-metal hemoglobin hyb
rids, whe
re the
rs/alpha.gif" BORDER=0>
1-Zn and
rs/beta2.gif" BORDER=0 ALIGN="middle">
2-Fe subunits co
rrespond to a "p
redocked" p
rotein-p
rotein complex with a c
rystallog
raphically defined inte
rface (Natan, M. J.; Baxte
r, W. W.; Kuila, D.; Ging
rich,D. J.; Ma
rtin, G. S.; Hoffman, B. M.
Adv. Chem. Ser. 1991,
228 (
Electron-Transfer Inorg., Org., Biol. Syst.),201-213), (ii) the Zn-cytoch
rome
c pe
roxidase complex with cytoch
rome
c, [ZnC
cP, Fe
3+C
c], having aninte
rmediate affinity between its pa
rtne
rs (Nocek, J. M.; Zhou, J. S.; De Fo
rest, S.; P
riyada
rshy, S.; Be
ratan,D. N.; Onuchic, J. N.; Hoffman, B. M.
Chem. Rev. 1996,
96, 2459-2489), and (iii) the [Zn-deute
romyoglobin,fe
rricytoch
rome
b5] complex, [ZnDMb, Fe
3+b5], which is loosely bound and highly dynamic (Liang, Z.-X.;Nocek, J.; Huang, K.;
Hayes, R. T.; Ku
rnikov, I. V.; Be
ratan, D. N.; Hoffman, B. M.
J. Am. Chem. Soc.2002,
124, 6849-6859. Inte
rsubunit ET within the hyb
rid does not involve second-o
rde
r p
rocesses o
r subunit
rea
rrangements, and thus is influenced only by pe
rtu
rbations of high-f
requency motions coupled to ET.Fo
r the latte
r two complexes, sol-gel encapsulation eliminates second-o
rde
r p
rocesses: p
rotein pa
rtne
rsencapsulated as a complex must stay togethe
r th
roughout a photoinitiated ET cycle, while p
roteinsencapsulated alone cannot acqui
re a pa
rtne
r. It fu
rthe
r modulates int
racomplex motions of the two pa
rtne
rs.