The
cytochrome P450 (CYP) family of heme monooxygenase enzymes
commonly catalyzes enantioselective hydroxylation and epoxidation
reactions. Epoxidation reactions have been hypothesized to proceed via multiple mechanisms involving different reactive intermediates.
Here, we use activity, spectroscopic, structural, and molecular dynamics
data to investigate the activity and stereoselectivity of 4-vinylbenzoic
acid epoxidation by the bacterial enzyme CYP199A4 from Rhodopseudomonas palustris HaA2. The epoxidation
of 4-vinylbenzoic acid by CYP199A4 proceeded with high enantioselectivity,
giving the (S)-epoxide in 99% ee at an activity of
220 nmol nmol-CYP–1 min–1. Optical
and EPR spectroscopy, redox potential measurements, and the crystal
structure of 4-vinylbenzoic acid-bound CYP199A4 indicated the partial
retention of an aqua ligand at the heme center in the presence of
the substrate, providing a justification of the lower activity (∼20%)
compared to the oxidative demethylation of 4-methoxybenzoic acid.
Mutagenesis at the conserved acid–alcohol pair (D251/T252),
which perturbs the generation of the reactive oxygen intermediates,
was employed to investigate their role in epoxidation reactions. The
T252A mutant increased the rate of turnover of the catalytic cycle,
but an elevation in hydrogen peroxide generation via uncoupling resulted in a similar rate of epoxide formation. The
activity of epoxidation significantly reduced with the D251N mutant.
The chemoselectivity and stereoselectivity of the epoxidation reaction
were maintained in the turnovers by these mutants. Overall, there
was little evidence that other intermediates, aside from the archetypal
reactive ferryl porphyrin cation radical, Compound I, contributed
significantly to the epoxidation reaction. The observation of the
high selectivity for the (S)-enantiomer was rationalized
by molecular dynamics simulations. When the arrangement of the alkene
and the active intermediate approached an ideal transition state structure
for epoxidation, one face of the alkene was more often exposed to
the iron oxo unit.