The thiamin diphosphate (ThDP)-and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-dependent pyruvate oxidase from Lactobacillus plantarum catalyses the conversion of pyruvate, inorganic phosphate, and oxygen to acetyl-phosphate, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide. Central to the catalytic sequence, two reducing equivalents are transferred from the resonant carbanion/enamine forms of R-hydroxyethylThDP to the adjacent flavin cofactor over a distance of approximately 7 Å, followed by the phosphorolysis of the thereby formed acetyl-ThDP. Pre-steady-state and steady-state kinetics using time-resolved spectroscopy and a 1 H NMR-based intermediate analysis indicate that both processes are kinetically coupled. In the presence of phosphate, intercofactor electron-transfer (ET) proceeds with an apparent first-order rate constant of 78 s -1 and is kinetically gated by the preceding formation of the tetrahedral substrateThDP adduct 2-lactyl-ThDP and its decarboxylation. No transient flavin radicals are detectable in the reductive half-reaction. In contrast, when phosphate is absent, ET occurs in two discrete steps with apparent rate constants of 81 and 3 s -1 and transient formation of a flavin semiquinone/hydroxyethyl-ThDP radical pair. Temperature dependence analysis according to the Marcus theory identifies the second step, the slow radical decay to be a true ET reaction. The redox potentials of the FAD ox /FAD sq (E 1 ) -37 mV) and FAD sq /FAD red (E 2 ) -87 mV) redox couples in the absence and presence of phosphate are identical. Both the Marcus analysis and fluorescence resonance energy-transfer studies using the fluorescent N3′-pyridyl-ThDP indicate the same cofactor distance in the presence or absence of phosphate. We deduce that the exclusive 10 2 -10 3 -fold rate enhancement of the second ET step is rather due to the nucleophilic attack of phosphate on the kinetically stabilized hydroxyethyl-ThDP radical resulting in a low-potential anion radical adduct than phosphate in a docking site being part of a through-bonded ET pathway in a stepwise mechanism of ET and phosporolysis. Thus, LpPOX would constitute the first example of a radical-based phosphorolysis mechanism in biochemistry.Pyruvate oxidase from Lactobacillus plantarum (LpPOX, 1 EC 1.2.3.3) belongs to a superfamily of enzymes that utilize the cofactor thiamin diphosphate (ThDP), the biologically active derivative of vitamin B 1 . In addition to ThDP, LpPOX contains a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) that is positioned at a distance of approximately 7 Å from the thiamin cofactor (Figure 1) (1).Pyruvate oxidase (POX) catalyses the conversion of pyruvate, inorganic phosphate, and oxygen to the high-energy metabolite acetyl phosphate, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide (2). Catalysis can be assumed to follow the typical Breslow mechanism of ThDP enzymes (Scheme 1). After ionization of the acidic C2-H of the thiazolium ring, pyruvate enters the active site where it reacts with the C2