Beef heart cytochrome c oxidase contains two cytochromes, a and a3, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa cytochrome c peroxidase has one high- and one low-potential c haem, cHP and cLP. The parallelism in co-ordination and spin states between cytochrome a and haem cHP on the one hand and between cytochrome a3 and haem cLP on the other is illustrated. The two latter haems become accessible to cyanide, whe...

Among aerobic prokaryotes, many different terminal oxidase complexes have been described. Sequence comparison has revealed that the aa3-type cytochrome c oxidase and the bo3-type quinol oxidase are variations on the same theme: the heme-copper oxidase. A third member of this family has recently been recognized: the cbb3-type cytochrome c oxidase. Here we give an overview, and report that nitric...