H-1 NMR of oxidized blue copper proteins

The hyperfine-shifted H-1 NMR resonances arising from the Cu(II) ligands of cucumber stellacyanin, plantacyanin (CBP) and plastocyanin, horseradish umecyanin, and of spinach plastocyanin and its L12G mutant are reported. It is shown that these broad paramagnetic signals are diagnostic of structural, electronic and solvation properties of the metal site and can be exploited to probe for differences and/or analogies among type I copper centers. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.