Metal homeostasis poses a major challenge to microbes, which must acquire scarce elements for core metabolic processes. Methanobactin, an extensively modified copper-chelating peptide, was one of the earliest natural products shown to enable microbial acquisition of a metal other than iron. We describe the core biosynthetic machinery responsible for the characteristic posttranslational modifications that grant methanobactin its specificity and affinity for copper. A heterodimer comprising MbnB, a DUF692 family iron enzyme, and MbnC, a protein from a previously unknown family, performs a dioxygen-dependent four-electron oxidation of the precursor peptide (MbnA) to install an oxazolone and an adjacent thioamide, the characteristic methanobactin bidentate copper ligands. MbnB and MbnC homologs are encoded together and separately in many bacterial genomes, suggesting functions beyond their roles in methanobactin biosynthesis.

Iron-sulfur clusters are versatile electron transfer cofactors, ubiquitous in metalloenzymes such as hydrogenases. In the oxygentolerant Hydrogenase I from Aquifex aeolicus such electron "wires" form a relay to a diheme cytb, an integral part of a respiration pathway for the reduction of O 2 to water. Amino acid sequence comparison with oxygen-sensitive hydrogenases showed conserved binding motifs for three iron-sulfur clusters, the nature and properties of which were unknown so far. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectra exhibited complex signals that disclose interesting features and spin-coupling patterns; by redox titrations three iron-sulfur clusters were identified in their usual redox states, a ½3Fe4S and two ½4Fe4S , but also a unique high-potential (HP) state was found. On the basis of 57 Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy we attribute this HP form to a superoxidized state of the [4Fe4S] center proximal to the [NiFe] site. The unique environment of this cluster, characterized by a surplus cysteine coordination, is able to tune the redox potentials and make it compliant with the ½4Fe4S 3þ state. It is actually the first example of a biological [4Fe4S] center that physiologically switches between 3þ, 2þ, and 1þ oxidation states within a very small potential range. We suggest that the (1 þ ∕2þ) redox couple serves the classical electron transfer reaction, whereas the superoxidation step is associated with a redox switch against oxidative stress.electrochemistry | EPR | iron-sulfur centers | O2-sensitivity H ydrogenases are metalloproteins occurring in the metabolic pathway of a wide variety of microbial organisms and catalyze the reversible oxidation of dihydrogen: H 2 ⇌ 2H þ þ 2e − (1). The growing interest in alternative sources of energy has focused scientific research on understanding and engineering these enzymes for future applications (2). One of the major limitations of hydrogenases, however, is their sensitivity towards oxygen. Recently, the discovery of hydrogenases that retain catalytic activity in oxygenic environments has potentially opened new applications as "green" vanguard catalysts, in particular as electrocatalysts on electrodes for biofuel cells (3,4).Aquifex aeolicus is a hyperthermophilic Knallgas bacterium with optimum growth temperature of 85°C (5). This microorganism harbors three distinct [NiFe] hydrogenases, among which Hase I is located in the aerobic respiration pathway and attached to the membrane via a diheme cytb (6). Hase I consists of two subunits; the large subunit contains the hetero-bimetallic nickel-iron site and the small subunit the electron transfer cofactors, namely iron-sulfur clusters (6). Based on spectroelectrochemical studies, this enzyme exhibits enhanced thermostability and tolerance for inhibitors (e.g., O 2 and CO) (4, 7).Although the structures of O 2 -sensitive hydrogenases are well characterized (8, 9), such information is still lacking for O 2 -tolerant enzymes. The molecular mechanism and structural determinants for this increased oxygen tolerance remain to ...

The membrane-bound hydrogenase (Hase I) of the hyperthermophilic bacterium Aquifex aeolicus belongs to an intriguing class of redox enzymes that show enhanced thermostability and oxygen tolerance. Protein film electrochemistry is employed here to portray the interaction of Hase I with molecular oxygen and obtain an overall picture of the catalytic activity. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy integrated with in situ electrochemistry is used to identify structural details of the [NiFe] site and the intermediate states involved in its redox chemistry. We found that the active site coordination is similar to that of standard hydrogenases, with a conserved Fe(CN)(2)CO moiety. However, only four catalytic intermediates could be detected; these correspond structurally to the Ni-B, Ni-SI(a), Ni-C, and Ni-R states of standard hydrogenases. The Ni-SI/Ni-C and Ni-C/Ni-R midpoint potentials are approximately 100 mV more positive than those observed in mesophilic hydrogenases, which may be the reason that A. aeolicus Hase I is more suitable as a catalyst for H(2) oxidation than production. Protein film electrochemistry shows that oxygen inhibits the enzyme by reacting at the active site to form a single species (Ni-B); the same inactive state is obtained under oxidizing, anaerobic conditions. The mechanism of anaerobic inactivation and reactivation in A. aeolicus Hase I is similar to that in standard hydrogenases. However, the reactivation of the former is more than 2 orders of magnitude faster despite the fact that reduction of Ni-B is not thermodynamically more favorable. A scheme for the enzymatic mechanism of A. aeolicus Hase I is presented, and the results are discussed in relation to the proposed models of oxygen tolerance.

Cyanobacterial aldehyde-deformylating oxygenases (ADOs) belong to the ferritin-like diiron-carboxylate superfamily of dioxygen-activating proteins. They catalyze conversion of saturated or mono-unsaturated Cn fatty aldehydes to formate and the corresponding Cn-1 alkanes or alkenes, respectively. This unusual, apparently redox-neutral transformation actually requires four electrons per turnover to reduce the O2 co-substrate to the oxidation state of water and incorporates one O-atom from O2 into the formate co-product. We show here that the complex of the diiron(II/II) form of ADO from Nostoc punctiforme (Np) with an aldehyde substrate reacts with O2 to form a colored intermediate with spectroscopic properties suggestive of a Fe2III/III complex with a bound peroxide. Its Mössbauer spectra reveal that the intermediate possesses an antiferromagnetically (AF) coupled Fe2III/III center with resolved sub-sites. The intermediate is long-lived in the absence of a reducing system, decaying slowly (t1/2 ~ 400 s at 5 °C) to produce a very modest yield of formate (< 0.15 enzyme equivalents), but reacts rapidly with the fully reduced form of 1-methoxy-5-methylphenazine (MeOPMS) to yield product, albeit at only ~ 50% of the maximum theoretical yield (owing to competition from one or more unproductive pathway). The results represent the most definitive evidence to date that ADO can use a diiron cofactor (rather than a homo- or hetero-dinuclear cluster involving another transition metal) and provide support for a mechanism involving attack on the carbonyl of the bound substrate by the reduced O2 moiety to form a Fe2III/III-peroxyhemiacetal complex, which undergoes reductive O-O-bond cleavage, leading to C1–C2 radical fragmentation and formation of the alk(a/e)ne and formate products.

The light-induced Ni-L state of [NiFe] hydrogenases is well suited to investigate the identity of the amino acid base that functions as a proton acceptor in the hydrogen turnover cycle in this important class of enzymes. Density functional theory calculations have been performed on large models that include the complete [NiFe] center and parts of the second coordination sphere. Combined with experimental data, in particular from electron paramagnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, the calculations indicate that the hydride ion, which is located in the bridging position between nickel and iron in the Ni-C state, dissociates upon illumination as a proton and binds to a nearby thiolate base. Moreover, the formation of a functionally relevant nickel-iron bond upon dissociation of the hydride is unequivocally observed and is in full agreement with the observed g values, ligand hyperfine coupling constants, and FTIR stretching frequencies. This metal-metal bond can be protonated and thus functions like a base. The nickel-iron bond is important for all intermediates with an empty bridge in the catalytic cycle, and the electron pair that constitutes this bond thus plays a crucial role in the hydrogen evolution catalyzed by the enzyme.