Molybdenum enzymes complexes

Sulfate reducers can use a wide range of terminal electron acceptors, and sulfate can be replaced by nitrate as a respiratory substrate. Molybdenum-containing enzymes have been discovered in SRB (also see later discussion) and, in particular, D. desulfuricans, grown in the presence of nitrate, generates a complex enzymatic system containing the following molybdenum enzymes (a) aldehyde oxidoreduc-tase (AOR), which reduces adehydes to carboxylic acids (b) formate dehydrogenase (FDH), which oxidizes formate to CO2 and (c) nitrate reductase (the first isolated from a SRB), which completes the enzy-... 

Molecular catalysis. The term molecular catalysis is used for catalytic systems where identical molecular species are the catalytic entity, like the molybdenum complex in Figure 8.1, and also large molecules such as enzymes. Many molecular catalysts are used as homogeneous catalysts (see (5) below), but can also be used in multiphase (heterogeneous) systems, such as those involving attachment of molecular entities to polymers. 

The molybdenum-containing enzymes considered in Section F also contain Fe-S clusters. Nitrogenases (Chapter 24) contain a more complex Fe-S-Mo cluster. Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (Section C) contains 2 Ni, 11 Fe, and 14 S2 as well as Zn in a dimeric structure. In these enzymes the Fe-S clusters appear to participate in catalysis by undergoing alternate reduction and oxidation. 

The active site structures of the three classes of molybdenum-containing enzymes are compared in Fig. 16-32. In the DMSO reductase family there are two identical molybdopterin dinucleotide coenzymes complexed with one molybdenum. However, only one of these appears to be functionally linked to the Fe2S2 center. 

The thermochromism in Scheme 1-54 represents valence tautomerism in molybdenum complexes and, at the same time, the inherent redox activity of a dithoilate ligand. This phenomenon may be significant with respect to the biological activity of various molybdenum enzymes. 

Iron-sulfur proteins contain non-heme iron and inorganic (acid-labile) sulfur in their active centers as 4Fe-4S or 2Fe-2S or, in the case of rubredoxin, as one iron alone. The iron is always bonded to cysteine sulfur. They catalyze redox reactions between +350 and —600 mV (hydrogen electrode = —420 mV). They are usually of low molecular weight (6000-15,000 Daltons) but can form complex enzymes with molybdenum and flavin. They occur as soluble or membrane-bound proteins and catalyze key reactions in photosynthesis, oxidative phosphorylation, nitrogen fixation, H2 metabolism, steroid hydroxylation, carbon and sulfur metabolism, etc. They occur in all organisms so far investigated and may... 

Mononuclear vs. Dinuclear Sites. All molybdenum enzymes contain two molybdenum atoms. Dinuclear molybdenum complexes are well... 

As yet, no X-ray crystal structures are available for any of the molybdenum enzymes in Table I. Therefore, present descriptions of the coordination environment of the molybdenum centers of the enzymes rest primarily upon comparisons of the spectra of the enzymes with the spectra of well-characterized molybdenum complexes. The two most powerful techniques for directly probing the molybdenum centers of enzymes are electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), especially the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) from experiments at the Mo K-absorption edge. Brief summaries of techniques are presented in this section, followed by specific results for sulfite oxidase (Section III.B), xanthine oxidase (Section III.C), and model compounds (Section IV). 

The absence of such fluorescence in intact enzymes led to the original proposal that molybdopterin (1) is a tetrahydropterin (25). However, fluorescence from an oxidized pterin ring is also effectively quenched (>95%) in model complexes that contain a metallodithiolate on the C(6) side chain 54). Urothione (7), the proposed metabolic excretory product of molybdopterin, is also nonfluorescent (25). In general, the fluorescence behavior of model molybdenum complexes has received little attention (75). 

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