Polychromatic kinetics of conformational and spin relaxation of reduced intermediates of myoglobin

Moessbauer spectroscopy was used to study the relaxation of a non-equilibrium myoglobin state produced at 77 K by reduction of metmyoglobin Fe(III) with thermalized electrons. The intermediate is characterized with the metMb (r) conformation of the protein globule and a low spin heme Fe(II) with a water molecule on the sixth coordination site. The intermediate is stable at 77 K but relaxes with increasing temperature into equilibrium deoxymyoglobin with dissociation of the bond Fe(II) - H₂O and the transition of the iron into the high spin state. In the temperature range 147 - 195 K the relaxation kinetics is nonexponential in time and can be described in terms of the polychromatic kinetics. A fitting of the kinetics data supposing a gamma-distribution of activation enthalpies of the relaxation shows a shift and a narrowing of the distribution at T > 180 K. The effect of structural rearrangements and equilibrium conformational fluctuations in the protein on the shape of the observed barrier distribution is discussed.