Lysine 5,6-aminomutase (5,6-LAM)
is a 5′-deoxyadenosylcobalamin
and pyridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP) codependent radical enzyme
that can accept at least three substrates, d-lysine, l-β-lysine and l-lysine. The reaction of 5,6-LAM
is believed to follow an intramolecular radical rearrangement mechanism
involving formation of a cyclic azacyclopropylcarbinyl radical intermediate
(I•). Similar I•s are also proposed
for other radical aminomutases, such as ornithine 4,5-aminomutase
(4,5-OAM) and lysine 2,3-aminomutase (2,3-LAM). Nevertheless, experimental
proof in support of the participation of I• have
been elusive. PLP is proposed to lower the energy of this elusive
I• by captodative stabilization and spin delocalization.
In this work, we employ PLP-N-oxide (PLP-NO) to investigate
the flexibility of 5,6-LAM toward cofactor analog and participation
of I• in the reaction mechanism. Our calculations
show that substitution of PLP-NO for PLP stabilizes I• by 35.2 kJ mol–1 as a result of enhanced spin
delocalization, which becomes the lowest energy state along the reaction
sequence. Kinetic parameters and spectroscopic observations for PLP-NO
similar to those of PLP demonstrate that PLP-NO mimics natural cofactor
for 5,6-LAM. Interestingly, the flexibility of 5,6-LAM toward cofactor
analog PLP-NO makes it an even more promising candidate for biocatalytic
applications. Expectedly, the catalytic efficiency (k
cat/K
m) is reduced by ∼3
times with PLP-NO as a cofactor. Various factors, including higher
stabilization of proposed corresponding I• for PLP-NO
than that of PLP, could lead to the decrease in activity.