Multiheme
proteins are important in energy conversion and biogeochemical
cycles of nitrogen and sulfur. A diheme cytochrome c
4 (c
4) was used as a model
to elucidate roles of the interdomain interface on properties of iron
centers in its hemes A and B. Isolated monoheme domains c
4-A and c
4-B, together with
the full-length diheme c
4 and its Met-to-His
ligand variants, were characterized by a variety of spectroscopic
and stability measurements. In both isolated domains, the heme iron
is Met/His-ligated at pH 5.0, as in the full-length c
4, but becomes His/His-ligated in c
4-B at higher pH. Intradomain contacts in c
4-A are minimally affected by the separation of c
4-A and c
4-B domains,
and isolated c
4-A is folded. In contrast,
the isolated c
4-B is partially unfolded,
and the interface with c
4-A guides folding
of this domain. The c
4-A and c
4-B domains have the propensity to interact even without
the polypeptide linker. Thermodynamic cycles have revealed properties
of monomeric folded isolated domains, suggesting that ferrous (FeII), but not ferric (FeIII) c
4-A and c
4-B, is stabilized by
the interface. This study illustrates the effects of the interface
on tuning structural and redox properties of multiheme proteins and
enriches our understanding of redox-dependent complexation.