Functional Regulation of Myoglobin by Iron Corrphycene

Iron corrphycene, a novel isomeric heme, was incorporated into myoglobin to examine the influence of heme deformation on the function. The reconstituted protein, although functionally active, exhibits extremely lower affinities for O2 and CO as compared with the native protein. The functional anomaly was explained in terms of modified iron reactivity in the trapezoidal coordination core.