[Fe-S] clusters, nature’s modular electron transfer units, are often arranged in chains that support long-range electron transfer. Despite considerable interest, the design of biomimetic artificial systems emulating multicluster-binding proteins, with the final goal of integrating them in man-made oxidoreductases, remains elusive. Here, we report a novel bis-[4Fe-4S] cluster binding protein, DSD-Fdm, in which the two clusters are positioned within a distance of 12 Å, compatible with the electronic coupling necessary for efficient electron transfer. The design exploits the structural repeat of coiled coils as well as the symmetry of the starting scaffold, a homodimeric helical protein (DSD). In total, eight hydrophobic residues in the core of DSD were replaced by eight cysteine residues that serve as ligands to the [4Fe-4S] clusters. Incorporation of two [4Fe-4S] clusters proceeds with high yield. The two [4Fe-4S] clusters are located in the hydrophobic core of the helical bundle as characterized by various biophysical techniques. The secondary structure of the apo and holo proteins is conserved; further, the incorporation of clusters results in stabilization of the protein with respect to chemical denaturation. Most importantly, this de novo designed protein can mimic the function of natural ferredoxins: we show here that reduced DSD-Fdm transfers electrons to cytochrome c, thus generating the reduced cyt c stoichiometrically.

Hydrogen is an attractive fuel with potential for production scalability, provided that inexpensive, efficient molecular catalysts utilizing base metals can be developed for hydrogen production. Here we show for the first time that cobalt myoglobin (CoMyo) catalyzes hydrogen production in mild aerobic conditions with turnover number of 520 over 8 hours. Compared to free Co-protoporphyrin IX, incorporation into the myoglobin scaffold results in a 4-fold increase in photoinduced hydrogen production activity. Engineered variants in which specific histidine resides in proximity of the active site were mutated to alanine result in modulation of the catalytic activity, with the H64A/H97A mutant displaying activity 2.5-fold higher than wild type. Our results demonstrate that protein scaffolds can augment and modulate the intrinsic catalytic activity of molecular hydrogen production catalysts.

In nature, protein subunits containing multiple iron–sulfur clusters often mediate the delivery of reducing equivalents from metabolic pathways to the active site of redox proteins. The de novo design of redox active proteins should include the engineering of a conduit for the delivery of electrons to and from the active site, in which multiple redox active centers are arranged in a controlled manner. Here, we describe a designed three-helix protein, DSD-bis[4Fe-4S], that coordinates two iron–sulfur clusters within its hydrophobic core. The design exploits the pseudo two-fold symmetry of the protein scaffold, DSD, which is a homodimeric three-helix bundle. Starting from the sequence of the parent peptide, we mutated eight leucine residues per dimer in the hydrophobic core to cysteine to provide the first coordination sphere for cubane-type iron–sulfur clusters. Incorporation of two clusters per dimer is readily achieved by in situ reconstitution and imparts increased stability to thermal denaturation compared to that of the apo form of the peptide as assessed by circular dichroism-monitored thermal denaturation. The presence of [4Fe-4S] clusters in intact proteins is confirmed by UV–vis spectroscopy, gel filtration, analytical ultracentrifugation, and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy. Pulsed electron–electron double-resonance experiments have detected a magnetic dipole interaction between the two clusters ∼0.7 MHz, which is consistent with the expected intercluster distance of 29–34 Å. Taken together, our data demonstrate the successful design of an artificial multi-iron–sulfur cluster protein with evidence of cluster–cluster interaction. The design principles implemented here can be extended to the design of multicluster molecular wires.

There is growing interest in the development of hydrogenase mimics for solar fuel production. Here, we present a bioinspired mimic designed by anchoring a diiron hexacarbonyl cluster to a model helical peptide via an artificial dithiol amino acid. The [FeFe]–peptide complex catalyses photo-induced production of hydrogen in water.

De novo designed heme-binding proteins have been used successfully to recapitulate features of natural hemoproteins. This approach has now been extended to membrane-soluble model proteins. Our group designed a functional hemoprotein, ME1, by engineering a bishistidine binding site into a natural membrane protein, glycophorin A (Cordova et al. in J Am Chem Soc 129:512–518, 2007). ME1 binds iron(III) protoporphyrin IX with submicromolar affinity, has a redox potential of −128 mV, and displays peroxidase activity. Here, we show the effect of aromatic residues in modulating the redox potential in the context of a membrane-soluble model system. We designed aromatic interactions with the heme through a single-point mutant, G25F, in which a phenylalanine is designed to dock against the porphyrin ring. This mutation results in roughly tenfold tighter binding to iron(III) protoporphyrin IX (Kd,app = 6.5 × 10−8 M), and lowers the redox potential of the cofactor to −172 mV. This work demonstrates that specific design features aimed at controlling the properties of bound cofactors can be introduced in a minimalist membrane hemoprotein model. The ability to modulate the redox potential of cofactors embedded in artificial membrane proteins is crucial for the design of electron transfer chains across membranes in functional photosynthetic devices.

Hydrogen is an attractive fuel with potential for production scalability, provided that inexpensive, efficient molecular catalysts utilizing base metals can be developed for hydrogen production. Here we show for the first time that cobalt myoglobin (CoMyo) catalyzes hydrogen production in mild aerobic conditions with turnover number of 520 over 8 hours. Compared to free Co-protoporphyrin IX, incorporation into the myoglobin scaffold results in a 4-fold increase in photoinduced hydrogen production activity. Engineered variants in which specific histidine resides in proximity of the active site were mutated to alanine result in modulation of the catalytic activity, with the H64A/H97A mutant displaying activity 2.5-fold higher than wild type. Our results demonstrate that protein scaffolds can augment and modulate the intrinsic catalytic activity of molecular hydrogen production catalysts.

There is growing interest in the development of hydrogenase mimics for solar fuel production. Here, we present a bioinspired mimic designed by anchoring a diiron hexacarbonyl cluster to a model helical peptide via an artificial dithiol amino acid. The [FeFe]–peptide complex catalyses photo-induced production of hydrogen in water.