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Mononuclear iron(II) alpha-keto carboxylate and carboxylate compounds of the sterically hindered tridentate face-capping ligand Tp(Ph2) (Tp(Ph2) = hydrotris(3,5-diphenylpyrazol-1-yl)borate) were prepared as models for the active sites of nonheme iron oxygenases. The structures of an aliphatic alpha-keto carboxylate complex, [Fe(II)(Tp(Ph2))(O(2)CC(O)CH(3))], and the carboxylate complexes [Fe(II)(Tp(Ph2))(OBz)] and [Fe(II)(Tp(Ph2))(OAc)(3,5-Ph(2)pzH)] were determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, all of which have five-coordinate iron centers. Both the alpha-keto carboxylate and the carboxylate compounds react with dioxygen resulting in the hydroxylation of a single ortho phenyl position of the Tp(Ph2) ligand. The oxygenation products were characterized spectroscopically, and the structure of the octahedral iron(III) phenolate product [Fe(III)(Tp(Ph2))(OAc)(3,5-Ph(2)pzH)] was established by X-ray diffraction. The reaction of the alpha-keto carboxylate model compounds with oxygen to produce the phenolate product occurs with concomitant oxidative decarboxylation of the alpha-keto acid. Isotope labeling studies show that (18)O(2) ends up in the Tp(Ph2) phenolate oxygen and the carboxylate derived from the alpha-keto acid. The isotope incorporation mirrors the dioxygenase nature of the enzymatic systems. Parallel studies on the carboxylate complexes demonstrate that the oxygen in the hydroxylated ligand is also derived from molecular oxygen. The oxygenation of the benzoylformate complex is demonstrated to be first order in metal complex and dioxygen, with activation parameters DeltaH++ = 25 +/- 2 kJ mol(-1) and DeltaS++ = -179 +/- 6 J mol(-1) K(-1). The rate of appearance of the iron(III) phenolate product is sensitive to the nature of the substituent on the benzoylformate ligand, exhibiting a Hammett rho value of +1.3 indicative of a nucleophilic mechanism. The proposed reaction mechanism involves dioxygen binding to produce an iron(III) superoxide species, nucleophilic attack of the superoxide at the alpha-keto functionality, and oxidative decarboxylation of the adduct to afford the oxidizing species that attacks the Tp(Ph2) phenyl ring. Interestingly, the alpha-keto carboxylate complexes react 2 orders of magnitude faster than the carboxylate complexes, thus emphasizing the key role that the alpha-keto functionality plays in oxygen activation by alpha-keto acid-dependent iron enzymes.

Heme A, an obligatory cofactor in eukaryotic cytochrome c oxidase, is produced from heme B (protoheme) via two enzymatic reactions catalyzed by heme O synthase and heme A synthase. Heme O synthase is responsible for the addition of a farnesyl moiety, while heme A synthase catalyzes the oxidation of a methyl substituent to an aldehyde. We have cloned the heme O synthase and heme A synthase genes from Bacillus subtilis (ctaB and ctaA) and overexpressed them in Escherichia coli to probe the oxidative mechanism of heme A synthase. Because E. coli does not naturally produce or utilize heme A, this strategy effectively decoupled heme A biosynthesis from the native electron transfer pathway and heme A transport, allowing us to observe two previously unidentified hemes. We utilized HPLC, UV/visible spectroscopy, and tandem mass spectrometry to identify these novel hemes as derivatives of heme O containing an alcohol or a carboxylate moiety at position C8 on pyrrole ring D. We interpret these derivatives to be the putative alcohol intermediate and an overoxidized byproduct of heme A synthase. Because we have shown that all hemes produced by heme A synthase require O(2) for their synthesis, we propose that heme A synthase catalyzes the oxidation of the C8 methyl to an aldehyde group via two discrete monooxygenase reactions.

The bidentate coordination of an alpha-keto acid to an iron(II) center via the keto group and the carboxylate gives rise to metal-to-ligand charge-transfer transitions between 400 and 600 nm in model complexes and in alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases. Excitation into these absorption bands of the Fe(II)TauD(alpha-KG) complex (TauD = taurine/alpha-ketoglutarate dioxygenase, alpha-KG = alpha-ketoglutarate) elicits two resonance Raman features at 460 and 1686 cm(-1), both of which are sensitive to (18)O labeling. Corresponding studies of model complexes, the six-coordinate [Fe(II)(6-Me(3)-TPA)(alpha-keto acid)](+) and the five-coordinate [Fe(II)(Tp(Ph2))(alpha-keto acid)] (6-Me(3)-TPA = tris[(6-methyl-2-pyridyl)methyl]amine, Tp(Ph2) = hydrotris(3,5-diphenylpyrazol-1-yl)borate), lead to the assignment of these two features to the Fe(II)(alpha-keto acid) chelate mode and the nu(C==O) of the keto carbonyl group, respectively. Furthermore, the chelate mode is sensitive to the coordination number of the metal center; binding of a sixth ligand to the five-coordinate [Fe(II)(Tp(Ph2))(benzoylformate)] elicits a 9--20 cm(-1) downshift. Thus, the 10 cm(-1) upshift of the chelate mode observed for Fe(II)TauD(alpha-KG) upon the addition of the substrate, taurine, is associated with the conversion of the six-coordinate metal center to a five-coordinate center, as observed for the iron center of clavaminate synthase from X-ray crystallography (Zhang, Z.; et al. Nat. Struct. Biol. 2000, 7, 127-133) and MCD studies (Zhou, J.; et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 13539--13540). These studies provide useful insights into the initial steps of the oxygen activation mechanism of alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases.

TfdA is a non-heme iron enzyme which catalyzes the first step in the oxidative degradation of the widely used herbicide (2, 4-dichlorophenoxy)acetate (2,4-D). Like other alpha-keto acid-dependent enzymes, TfdA utilizes a mononuclear Fe(II) center to activate O(2) and oxidize substrate concomitant with the oxidative decarboxylation of alpha-ketoglutarate (alpha-KG). Spectroscopic analyses of various Cu(II)-substituted and Fe(II)-reconstituted TfdA complexes via electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), electron spin-echo envelope modulation (ESEEM), and UV-vis spectroscopies have greatly expanded our knowledge of the enzyme's active site. The metal center is coordinated to two histidine residues as indicated by the presence of a five-line pattern in the Cu(II) EPR signal, for which superhyperfine splitting is attributed to two equivalent nitrogen donor atoms from two imidazoles. Furthermore, a comparison of the ESEEM spectra obtained in H(2)O and D(2)O demonstrates that the metal maintains several solvent-accessible sites, a conclusion corroborated by the increase in multiplicity in the EPR superhyperfine splitting observed in the presence of imidazole. Addition of alpha-KG to the Cu-containing enzyme leads to displacement of an equatorial water on copper, as determined by ESEEM analysis. Subsequent addition of 2,4-D leads to the loss of a second water molecule, with retention of a third, axially bound water. In contrast to these results, in Fe(II)-reconstituted TfdA, the cosubstrate alpha-KG chelates to the metal via a C-1 carboxylate oxygen and the alpha-keto oxygen as revealed by characteristic absorption features in the optical spectrum of Fe-TfdA. This binding mode is maintained in the presence of substrate, although the addition of 2,4-D does alter the metal coordination environment, perhaps by creating an O(2)-binding site via solvent displacement. Indeed, loss of solvent to generate an open binding site upon the addition of substrate has also been suggested for the alpha-keto acid-dependent enzyme clavaminate synthase 2 [Zhou et al. (1998) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 120, 13539-13540]. Nitrosyl adducts of various Fe-TfdA complexes have also been investigated by optical and EPR spectroscopy. Of special interest is the tightly bound NO complex of Fe-TfdA.(alpha-KG).(2,4-D), which may represent an accurate model of the initial oxygen-bound species.

We have investigated the ability of a series of three related copper complexes Cu([9-11]aneN(3))X(2) to hydrolyze the activated phosphodiesters bis(4-nitrophenyl) phosphate (BNPP) and ethyl 4-nitrophenyl phosphate (ENPP). The compound Cu([10]aneN(3))Br(2) crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/c, a = 20.693(4) Å, b = 11.429(2) Å, c = 20.138(4) Å, beta = 104.78(3) degrees, V = 4605(2) Å(3), and Z = 16. The compound Cu([11]aneN(3))Br(2) crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pnma, a = 13.7621(10) Å, b = 8.7492(13) Å, c = 10.0073(10) Å, V = 1205.0(2) Å(3), and Z = 4. The structure of Cu([9]aneN(3))Cl(2) was previously reported (Inorg. Chem. 1980, 19, 1379). The crystal structures of the three complexes show a progression in geometry from square pyramidal to distorted trigonal bipyramidal as the size of the macrocycle increases. Larger macrocycles also result in the copper ion being pulled closer to the plane defined by the three ligand nitrogens, which in turn results in an increase in the sum of the three N-Cu-N angles from 249 degrees to 257 degrees to 278 degrees along with a concomitant decrease in the X-Cu-X angle. Significantly, the rate constant for the hydrolysis of BNPP by Cu([9-11]aneN(3))X(2) increases by nearly an order of magnitude as the ligand size increases from a nine-membered to an 11-membered ring. Correlations have been made between the catalytic ability of Cu([9-11]aneN(3))X(2) and the structural and electronic properties of the complexes. All three catalysts exist in a monomer-dimer equilibrium in solution, with the monomer being the catalytically active species. As the ligand size increases, the dimer formation constant (K(f)) decreases due to steric constraint, thereby increasing the concentration of active species and hence the rate of hydrolysis. The contributions of Lewis acidity and steric constraint on both substrate binding (K(2)) and P-O bond cleavage (k(3) or k(cat)) are less important than the dimerization equilibrium constant in determining the rate of the reaction.

A 2-His-1-carboxylate facial triad is a common feature of the active sites in a number of mononuclear non-heme iron(II) enzymes. This structural motif was established crystallographically for five different classes of enzymes and inferred from sequence similarity for two other classes. The 2-His-1-carboxylate facial triad anchors the iron in the active site and at the same time maintains three additional cis-oriented sites. These sites can be used to bind other endogenous ligands or exogenous ligands such as substrate and/or O2, giving the metal center great flexibility to use different mechanistic strategies to perform a variety of chemical transformations.