Active site threonine facilitates proton transfer during dioxygen activation at the diiron center of toluene/o-xylene monooxygenase hydroxylase

Woon Ju Song, Michael S. McCormick, Rachel K. Behan, Matthew H. Sazinsky, Wei Jiang, Jeffery Lin, Carsten Krebs, Stephen J. Lippard

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Scopus citations

Abstract

Toluene/o-xylene monooxygenase hydroxylase (ToMOH), a diiron-containing enzyme, can activate dioxygen to oxidize aromatic substrates. To elucidate the role of a strictly conserved T201 residue during dioxygen activation of the enzyme, T201S, T201G, T201C, and T201V variants of ToMOH were prepared by site-directed mutagenesis. X-ray crystal structures of all the variants were obtained. Steady-state activity, regiospecificity, and single-turnover yields were also determined for the T201 mutants. Dioxygen activation by the reduced T201 variants was explored by stopped-flow UV-vis and Mössbauer spectroscopy. These studies demonstrate that the dioxygen activation mechanism is preserved in all T201 variants; however, both the formation and decay kinetics of a peroxodiiron(III) intermediate, T201peroxo, were greatly altered, revealing that T201 is critically involved in dioxygen activation. A comparison of the kinetics of O2 activation in the T201S, T201C, and T201G variants under various reaction conditions revealed that T201 plays a major role in proton transfer, which is required to generate the peroxodiiron(III) intermediate. A mechanism is postulated for dioxygen activation, and possible structures of oxygenated intermediates are discussed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)13582-13585
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume132
Issue number39
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 6 2010

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Catalysis
  • Chemistry(all)
  • Biochemistry
  • Colloid and Surface Chemistry

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