A coupled binuclear copper active site is present in a wide variety of proteins and enzymes which perform different biological functions utilizing 0,. In the multicopper oxidases, the Type 2 and Type 3 centers comprise a trinuclear Cu cluster which represents the active site for the multielectron reduction of 0,. A coupled binuclear copper active site is present in a wide variety of proteins and enzymes which perform different biological functions utilizing 02. The hemocyanins (Hc) reversibly

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... nd 02, the tyrosinases (Ty) are monoxygenases which hydroxylate monophenols to o-diphenols and oxidize these to o-quinones, and the multicopper oxidases (laccase (Lc), ascorbate oxidase and ceruloplasmin), which contain additional copper centers (Type 1 and Type 2) catalyze the four electron reduction of 02 to water. Our original chemical and spectroscopic studies over a series of protein active site derivatives of Hc and Ty demonstrated (ref.