Molybdenum hydroxylases function

A number of functional groups, such as nitro, diazo, carbonyls, disulfides, sulfoxides, and alkenes, are susceptible to reduction. In many cases it is difficult to determine whether these reactions proceed nonenzymatically by the action of biological reducing agents such as NADPFI, NADH, and FAD or through the mediation of functional enzyme systems. As noted above, the molybdenum hydroxylases can carry out, in vitro, a number of reduction reactions, including nitro, azo, A-oxidc, and sulfoxide reduction. Although the in vivo consequences of this are not yet clear, much of the distribution of reductases described below may be, in whole or in part, the distribution of molybdenum hydroxylases. 

The molybdenum-containing oxidoreductases that catalyze Eq. (1) have been variously termed molybdenum hydroxylases (6), oxotransferases (7), and oxo-type molybdenum enzymes (8). Molybdenum hydroxylase aptly describes the conversion of xanthine to uric acid, but the name seems less appropriate for the reactions catalyzed by sulfite oxidase and nitrate reductase oxotransferase implies that the function of these enzymes is to transfer oxo groups, even though relatively little is known about their actual mechanism of action and the name oxo-type molybdenum enzyme recognizes both the apparent oxo transfer chemistry of Eq. (1) and the fact that the molybdenum atom in each of these enzymes contains at least one terminal oxo group. In this chapter, we shall refer to these enzymes as pterin-containing molybdenum enzymes because a 6-substituted pterin appears to be a common chemical feature of all of the enzymes. 

This enzyme, as well as nicotinic acid hydroxylase was recently reported by Andreesan to be a selenoenzyme. The discovery of both these enzymes was based on the clever assumption that selenium might well be a component of multisubunit enzymes containing redox centers such as iron-sulfur, flavin, molybdenum, etc. When Clostridium acidiurici was cultured in media with supplemental selenium, an elevated activity of xanthine dehydrogenase was observed. The clostridial enzyme is comparable to mammalian xanthine oxidases in that it contains flavin adeninedinucleotide (FAD), molybdenum and nonheme iron. This enzyme functions in vivo under anaerobic conditions and appears to catalyze the reduction of uric acid to xanthine. Again it will be interesting to learn the form of selenium in this enzyme. 

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