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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Sep 29.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Chem Soc. 2010 Sep 29;132(38):13240–13250. doi: 10.1021/ja101812c

Figure 7.

Figure 7

Models of T-shaped Hg(II) complexes inside three-stranded coiled coils. Shown are possible coordination modes of Hg(II) with the two thiols in a) CSL9C and b) CSL19C where one thiol is pointing towards the interior and the other towards the helical interface. Peptide backbone is shown as green ribbon, Cys residues as ball and stick and Hg(II) as red sphere. Solid lines between sulfur atoms and Hg(II) in the two models represent S-Hg-S bonds; whereas the dotted lines from the third sulfur to the Hg(II) represent situations where this third sulfur may or may not be coordinated to the Hg(II) ion. With S-S separation of 4.58 Å and 4.64 Å these two thiols are well suited to bind Hg(II) in linear coordination. The third thiol in CSL19C being at a shorter distance than in CSL9C may explain why Hg(II) in d sites is believed to be more T-shaped than in a site.