Ubiquinol oxidation to ubiquinone and/or the reverse reaction, ubiquinone reduction to ubiquinol (Scheme 1), is critical in the actions of several enzymes, including cytochrome (cyt) bc 1 [1][2][3] and cyt bo 3 ubiquinol oxidase, [4] as well as photosynthesis in bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers.[5] For example, cyt bo 3 from E. coli reportedly contains two ubiquinol/ubiquinone binding sites, a low-affinity site (QL), where ubiquinol is oxidized and a high-affinity site (QH) where a bound ubiquinone species acts as a conduit for electrons. The QH site binds a quinone tightly and stabilizes a transient intermediate, the one-electron reduced quinone (or semiquinone), through hydrogen bonding by the protein. The best available evidence provides conflicting reports about the exact identity of the intermediate. Multi-frequency EPR experiments with 13 C-labeled ubiquinone-2 [6] implies binding of an anionic semiquinone radical to the protein via a one-sided hydrogen bond or a strongly asymmetric hydrogen-bonding network. In contrast, two-dimensional electron spin-echo envelope modulation experiments with the exchangeable protons implies "significant covalent OÀH binding of carbonyl oxygen O1 that is characteristic of a neutral radical". [7,8] Computed isotropic hyperfine coupling constants (hfccs) for a model of the ubiquinone-derived radicals presented herein show that 13 C hfccs for the carbonyl carbon atoms can be more than twenty times larger for the protonated, neutral radical (UQHC, Scheme 2) than for the anionic semiquinone radical (UQC À ) and confirm that the signs of 13