Metalloenzyme structure, techniques

Experimental techniques for determining distances must be employed to establish the structure of the active site components of glutamine synthetase. Techniques that are available for these studies are x-ray crystallography, EPR, NMR, and fluorescence energy transfer. All approaches are currently being employed to study the structure and function of this metalloenzyme. 

All of the special techniques used for metalloenzymes are most useful when analogous small molecules have been prepared by inorganic synthesis and characterized by X-ray crystallography. The preparation of these model complexes allows a given physical property to be associated with a particular coordination structure or oxidation state. Synthesis of model complexes with structural, functional, or spectroscopic properties relevant to a particular metalloenzyme is a vital aspect of bioinorganic chemistry (13) and is described in numerous chapters in this volume. 

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