Reduced pterins, molybdenum

The second method of establishing oxidation states employed redox titration using the redox dye dichlorophenolindophenol (DCIP) based on the knowledge that tetrahydropterins reduce DCIP instantaneously while qui-nonoid dihydropterins react slowly and 7,8-dihydropterins do not reduce DCIP at all. As previously mentioned in this chapter, DCIP oxidation of Moeo within several molybdoenzymes was determined to be a two-electron process, suggesting a dihydropterin reduction state that was speculated to be the quinonoid tautomer. The results of stoichiometric additions of DCIP to the molybdenum complexes of reduced pterins showed that no oxidation of... 

Several general conclusions may be made regarding synthesis of reduced pterin complexes of molybdenum. The stability of these complexes depends on formation of a Mo=N bond, which, electronically, replaces one of the two Mo=0 groups of the reagent as detailed in Scheme 2.12. Loss of an oxo ligand is facilitated by protonation by the two equivalents of HCl associated with... 

Scheme 2.17 Resonance structures for molybdenum coordinated to reduced pterin. Note the location of the pair of electrons depicted near Mo and N5 shifts in the three structures.

H. L. Kaufmann, L. Liable-Sands, A. L. Rheingold and S. J. N. Burgmayer, Molybdenum-Pterin Chemistry. 1. The Five-Electron Oxidation of an Oxo Molybdenum Dithiolate Complex of a Reduced Pterin, Inorg. Chem., 1999, 38, 2592-2599. 

The molyhdopterin cofactor, as found in different enzymes, may be present either as the nucleoside monophosphate or in the dinucleotide form. In some cases the molybdenum atom binds one single cofactor molecule, while in others, two pterin cofactors coordinate the metal. Molyhdopterin cytosine dinucleotide (MCD) is found in AORs from sulfate reducers, and molyhdopterin adenine dinucleotide and molyb-dopterin hypoxanthine dinucleotide were reported for other enzymes (205). The first structural evidence for binding of the dithiolene group of the pterin tricyclic system to molybdenum was shown for the AOR from Pyrococcus furiosus and D. gigas (199). In the latter, one molyb-dopterin cytosine dinucleotide (MCD) is used for molybdenum ligation. Two molecules of MGD are present in the formate dehydrogenase and nitrate reductase. 

D. desulfuricans is able to grow on nitrate, inducing two enzymes that responsible for the steps of conversion of nitrate to nitrite (nitrate reductase-NAP), which is an iron-sulfur Mo-containing enzyme, and that for conversion of nitrite to ammonia (nitrite reduc-tase-NIR), which is a heme-containing enzyme. Nitrate reductase from D. desulfuricans is the only characterized enzyme isolated from a sulfate reducer that has this function. The enzyme is a monomer of 74 kDa and contains two MGD bound to a molybdenum and one [4Fe-4S] center (228, 229) in a single polypeptide chain of 753 amino acids. FXAFS data on the native nitrate reductase show that besides the two pterins coordinated to the molybdenum, there is a cysteine and a nonsulfur ligand, probably a Mo-OH (G. N. George, personal communication). 

In summary, a 6-substituted pterin was first identified as a structural component of the molybdenum cofactor from sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase and nitrate reductase in 1980 (24). Subsequent studies provided good evidence that these enzymes possessed the same unstable molyb-dopterin (1), and it seemed likely that 1 was a constituent of all of the enzymes of Table I. It now appears that there is a family of closely related 6-substituted pterins that may differ in the oxidation state of the pterin ring, the stereochemistry of the dihydropterin ring, the tautomeric form of the side chain, and the presence and nature of a dinucleotide in the side chain. In some ways the variations that are being discovered for the pterin units of molybdenum enzymes are beginning to parallel the known complexity of naturally occurring porphyrins, which may have several possible side chains, various isomers of such side chains, and a partially reduced porphyrin skeleton (46). 

The postulated catalytic cycles for pterin-containing molybdenum enzymes involve a two-electron change at the molybdenum atom (Mo(VI) Mo(IV)). Microcoulometric titrations of nitrate reductase Chlorella vulgaris) (76), milk xanthine oxidase (77), and sulfite oxidase (78) show that their molybdenum centers are reduced by two electrons. The reduction potentials for the molybdenum center of chicken liver sulfite oxidase are strongly dependent upon pH and upon anion concentration (78). 

The inducible arsenite oxidase from the Eubacterium Alcaligenes faecalis (NCIB 8687) has been purified and characterized (22-24). Anderson et al. (24) isolated the enzyme from a sonicate of washed, lysozyme-treated cells that had been harvested in their late exponential growth phase. The sonicate was fractionated by gel filtration through DEAE-sepharose and active fractions concentrated by ultrafiltration. The purified enzyme was found to be monomeric with a molecular mass of 85 kDa. It consisted of two polypeptide chains in an approximate ratio of 70 30. The enzyme stmcture included one molybdenum, five or six iron atoms, and sulfide. Purification of the oxidase also led to recovery of azurin, a blue protein, which was rapidly reduced by arsenite in the presence of catalytic amounts of Aro, and a red protein. The red protein was a c-type cytochrome, which was reduced by arsenite in the presence of catalytic amounts of Aro and azurin. No reduction of the cytochrome occurred in the absence of Aro, but it did occur in the absence of azurin. Denaturation of Aro led to the release of a pterin cofactor characteristic of molybdenum hydroxylases. In intact cells of A. faecalis, the enzyme resides on the outer surface of the inner (plasma) membrane. The cytochrome and azurin may be part of an electron transfer pathway in the periplasm. 

Figure 2.1 Numbering systems for pterin, a derivative of the pteridine ring system (top), in an uncyclized and fully reduced form initially proposed for Moco (middle) and as the cyclized and reduced pyranopterin form observed by crystallography in the majority of molybdenum enzymes (bottom).

Subsequent Mo-pterin model investigations addressed a seeond provocative aspeet of Rajagopalan s proposed Moeo strueture. The 1982 proposal for Moco paired an oxidized Mo center with a redueed tetrahydropterin - a juxtaposition of the highest molybdenum oxidation state with the most reduced form of pterin - that seemed incompatible and implied possible redox reactions between the metal and the organie eofactor. This seetion deseribes studies direeted at exploring whether molybdenum and pterin redox reactions might occur. These studies were conducted from 1989 to 1999 and inelude reactivity studies of oxidized molybdenum(vi) with redueed pterins, and studies of redueed molybdenum(iv) with oxidized pterins and pteridines. 

In the case of molybdenum complexes of oxidized pterin and pteridine ligands, a similar argument leads to the formulation of these complexes as Mo(v) bound to a protonated, one-electron reduced pteridine radical, or Mo -(Hpterin ) (Scheme 2.18). This interpretation is consonant with earlier work on Ru"-flavin complexes. Radical character on flavin arising from intramolecular electron transfer was consistent with a structural distortion of flavin observed crystallographically, interpreted as partial Ru" -flavinsemiquinone character. Similarly, the Mo complexes of oxidized pterins and pteridines display short M=N5 bonds and bent flavin or pterin planes, consistent with a similar delocalized electronic structure. 

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