3-Nitrotyrosyl adducts in proteins have been detected in a wide range of diseases. The mechanisms by which reactive nitrogen oxide species may impede protein function through nitration were examined by using a unique model system, which exploits a critical tyrosyl residue in the fluorophoric pocket of recombinant green fluorescent protein (GFP). Exposure of purified GFP suspended in phosphate buffer to synthetic peroxynitrite in either 0.5 or 5 microM steps resulted in progressively increased 3-nitrotyrosyl immunoreactivity concomitant with disappearance of intrinsic fluorescence (IC(50) approximately 20 microM). Fluorescence from an equivalent amount of GFP expressed within intact MCF-7 tumor cells was largely resistant to this bolus treatment (IC(50) > 250 microM). The more physiologically relevant conditions of either peroxynitrite infusion (1 microM/min) or de novo formation by simultaneous, equimolar generation of nitric oxide (NO) and superoxide (e.g., 3-morpholinosydnonimine; NONOates plus xanthine oxidase/hypoxanthine, menadione, or mitomycin C) were examined. Despite robust oxidation of dihydrorhodamine under each of these conditions, fluorescence decrease of both purified and intracellular GFP was not evident regardless of carbon dioxide presence, suggesting that oxidation and nitration are not necessarily coupled. Alternatively, both extra- and intracellular GFP fluorescence was exquisitely sensitive to nitration produced by heme-peroxidase/hydrogen peroxide-catalyzed oxidation of nitrite. Formation of nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) during the reaction between NO and the nitroxide 2-phenyl-4,4,5,5-tetramethylimidazole-1-oxyl 3-oxide indicated that NO(2) can enter cells and alter peptide function through tyrosyl nitration. Taken together, these findings exemplified that heme-peroxidase-catalyzed formation of NO(2) may play a pivotal role in inflammatory and chronic disease settings while calling into question the significance of nitration by peroxynitrite.