The electrochemical sensing of different analytes with metal oxide modified electrodes by various mechanisms viz., free radial, catalytic, ion exchange, mixed ligand, ion association, etc., captured explicit attraction in the field of catalysis. Recently, we have reported the design and development of metal oxide modified and unmodified molecularly imprinted polypyrrole film coated glassy carbon based tyrosine sensors. The current paper highlights the mechanistic aspects of tyrosine sensing event on an in situ copper oxide modified molecularly imprinted polypyrrole coated glassy carbon electrode (MIPPy-GCE) in phosphate buffered solutions to explain the experimental findings. Complexation mechanism takes into account for the formation of both binary and ternary complexes of copper with tyrosine and/or phosphate. Electrocatalytic mechanism invokes the formation of copper (I) species. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.