Reduction ascorbate oxidase, electron

Type II copper enzymes generally have more positive reduction potentials, weaker electronic absorption signals, and larger EPR hyperfine coupling constants. They adopt trigonal, square-planar, five-coordinate, or tetragonally distorted octahedral geometries. Usually, type II copper enzymes are involved in catalytic oxidations of substrate molecules and may be found in combination with both Type I and Type III copper centers. Laccase and ascorbate oxidase are typical examples. Information on these enzymes is found in Tables 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3. Superoxide dismutase, discussed in more detail below, contains a lone Type II copper center in each of two subunits of its quaternary structure. 

The hemocyanlns which cooperatively bind dioxygen are found in two invertebrate phyla arthropod and mollusc. The mollusc hemocyanlns additionally exhibit catalase activity. Tyrosinase, which also reversibly binds dioxygen and dlsmutates peroxide, is a monooxygenase, using the dloxygen to hydroxylate monophenols to ortho-diphenols and to further oxidize this product to the quinone. Finally, the multicopper oxidases (laccase, ceruloplasmin and ascorbate oxidase) also contain coupled binuclear copper sites in combination with other copper centers and these catalyze the four electron reduction of dloxygen to water. 

So-called blue multinuclear copper oxidase enzymes, such as laccase and ascorbate oxidase, catalyze the stepwise oxidation of organic substrates (most likely in successive one-electron steps) in tandem with the four-electron reduction of O2 to water, i.e. no oxygen atom(s) from O2 are incorporated into the substrate (Eq. 4) [15]. Catechol oxidase, containing a type 3 center, mediates a two-electron substrate oxidation (o-diphenols to o-chinones), and turnover of two substrate molecules is coupled to the reduction of O2 to water [34,35]. The non-blue copper oxidases, e.g. galactose oxidase and amine oxidases [27,56-59], perform similar oxidation catalysis at a mononuclear type 2 Cu site, but H2O2 is produced from O2 instead of H2O, in a two-electron reduction. 

In the oxidation of ascorbate by Oj catalysed by ascorbate oxidase, the formation of the monodehydroascorbate free radical was demonstrated by EPR spectroscopy in a flow cell. A steady state was usually reached within 50 ms. The production of the free radical was also followed by the reduction of Fe(in)-cytochrome c. Thus the oxidation of ascorbate occurs in a one-electron step The formation of the monodehydroascorbate free radical was also measured directly by spectrophotometry at 360 nm, where the free radical shows an absorption maximum... 

In the discussion of the biochemistry of copper in Section 62.1.8 it was noted that three types of copper exist in copper enzymes. These are type 1 ( blue copper centres) type 2 ( normal copper centres) and type 3 (which occur as coupled pairs). All three classes are present in the blue copper oxidases laccase, ascorbate oxidase and ceruloplasmin. Laccase contains four copper ions per molecule, and the other two contain eight copper ions per molecule. In all cases oxidation of substrate is linked to the four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water. Unlike cytochrome oxidase, these are water-soluble enzymes, and so are convenient systems for studying the problems of multielectron redox reactions. The type 3 pair of copper centres constitutes the 02-reducing sites in these enzymes, and provides a two-electron pathway to peroxide, bypassing the formation of superoxide. Laccase also contains one type 1 and one type 2 centre. While ascorbate oxidase contains eight copper ions per molecule, so far ESR and analysis data have led to the identification of type 1 (two), type 2 (two) and type 3 (four) copper centres. 

Blue Multicopper Oxidases. These include laccases, ascorbate oxidase, and ceruloplasmin [22,61], which along with cytochrome c oxidase (CcO with Fe and Cu) can couple the one-electron oxidation of substrates (e.g., ascorbate, diamines, monophenols Fe2+ for ceruloplasmin cytochrome c, for CcO) to the full reduction of dioxygen to water (i.e., 02 + 4c + H+ —> 2H20). 

The multicopper oxidases (laccase, ascorbate oxidase, and ceruloplasmin) catalyze a four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water (285-287). Consistent with the four-electron stoichiometry, the enzymes contain four copper ions. One of the copper ions is type I, causing an intensely blue color of the proteins, thus the enzymes of this family are referred to as blue oxidases. They also contain a monomeric copper site that exhibits normal spectroscopic features, whereas the other two copper... 

According to the Chance mechanism, the interaction of H202 with the enzyme gives compound I (E,). The oxidation of the donor molecules leads to compound II (E[I) which oxidizes the second donor molecule. The radical intermediates were detected experimentally for such substrates as amines and phenols with relatively high reduction potential (Dunford and Stillman, 1976). The one-electron steps with the formation of free radicals at oxidation of amines and phenols have been proved in the ceruloplasmin, laccase and ascorbic oxidase reactions (Malsmstrom et al., 1975). 

Multicopper blue oxidases are synthesized as a single polypeptide chain, which is composed of three BCB domains in the case of laccases (LC) and ascorbate oxidases (AO) and six such domains in ceruloplasmin (CP) and hephaestin (HP). Structurally they are arranged in a triangular manner. These enzymes, along with heme-copper oxidases (cytochrome c oxidases and quinol-oxidases) and a cyanide-resistant alternative oxidase found in mitochondria of plants and fungi, are the only known enzymes capable of catalyzing four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water. In the... 

Ascorbate oxidase, laccase, and ceruloplasmin form the group of blue oxidases. These are multicopper enzymes catalyzing the four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water with concomitant one-electron oxidation of the substrate (3), which is very similar to the reaction performed by cytochrome c oxidase. All three enzymes have been known for many years, and an overwhelming number of papers have appeared since their discovery dealing with the different aspects of these enzymes. 

Laccase contains four copper atoms and catalyzes the four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water. X-Ray absorption edge spectroscopy has been used to determine the oxidation states of copper in Rhus vernicifera laccase, following the reaction of the reduced enzyme with dioxygen (202). This study included the incorporation of mercury(II) in the Type 1 copper site (see Section IV,B). The results demonstrate that the Type 2/Type 3 trinuclear copper site, as found in ascorbate oxidase (103), represents the minimal active site required for the multielectron reduction of dioxygen. 

The rapid initial reduction of the type 1 copper is very similar to that reported for tree laccase (49). The amplitude of this reduction increases with substrate concentration to a maximum value of approximately 50% of total absorbance change at 10°C. In laccase this effect is explained by the existence of two forms of the enzyme in an acid-base equilibrium. The active form allows rapid type 1 to type 3 electron transfer, whereas in the inactive form this process is inhibited. At higher substrate concentrations, the reduction of the type 1 copper is faster than the interconversion of inactive enzyme into its active form, leading to an increase in initial phase amplitude. Turnover-induced activation of ascorbate oxidase (67) could also be explained in terms of displacement of this inactive-active equilibrium. 

The finding from rapid-freeze-quench EPR experiments, that the reduction of the type 2 copper is slow compared with that of the type 1 copper, is analogous to the behavior noted for tree laccase at higher pH values (50). In this enzyme the slow reduction of the type 2 center is linked to the inhibition of the type 3 reduction. In ascorbate oxidase, however, reduction of the type 3 copper pairs proceeds despite the slow reduction of the type 2 copper, suggesting that the two electrons necessary for the proposed intramolecular reduction of the two type 3 copper pairs can be transferred from two of the three type 1 copper centers, without involving the type 2 center in any redox process. 

An important family of multicopper enzymes couple the reduction of O2 to H2O with substrate oxidation. They include ascorbate oxidase, ceruloplasmin, Fet3, hephaestin, and laccase, and contain at least four copper ions. The four Cu ions are distributed between one type 1 blue copper site, one type 2 site, and one type 3 copper site. The blue Type 1 site is usually located some 12—13 A distant from a trinuclear site which has the two Type 3 coppers, linked by a bridging oxygen and one Type 2 copper. We illustrate this class of oxidases with laccase which catalyses the four-electron reduction of O2 to water, coupled with the oxidation of small organic... 

Multicopper blue copper proteins include ascorbate oxidase and laccase. These are metalloenzymes that catalyse the reduction of O2 to H2O (equation 28.9) and, at the same time, an organic substrate (e.g. a phenol) undergoes a one-electron oxidation. The overall scheme can be written in the form of equation 28.10 R undergoes polymerization. 

The high-resolution structure of the blue copper enzyme ascorbate oxidase (AO) prompted several laboratories to examine the internal electron flow from the substrate oxidation site [type 1 Cu(II)] to that of dioxygen reduction. Again, both flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis were employed, providing a comparison of their respective features. 

Figure 4. Time-resolved absorption changes monitored at 610 nm (A), and 330 nm (B) in ascorbate oxidase upon reduction by C02 radicals. T = 285 K, pH = 5.5, and pulse width = 0.5 /ds of 5 MeV electrons.

The blue oxidases like ascorbate oxidase, laccase, and ceruloplasmin, and the terminal oxidases of aerobic respiratory chains like cytochrome oxidases and quinol oxidases are the only enzymes so far known that catalyze the direct four-electron reduction of molecular oxygen to water. Thereby, the reducing substrates like ascorbate, quinol, Fe " ", and cytochrome c are oxidized in one-electron transfer steps. The substrates of quinol oxidases, ubiquinol, or menaquinol, may be oxidized in two-electron transfer steps. For the two cases the following general reaction formulae can be defined ... 

Copper-dioxygen compounds or interactions of higher nuclearity exist in the multicopper oxidases (Cu 02 = 3 l) such as in ascorbate oxidase (AO), laccase, and ceruloplasmin, all of which couple the four electron reduction of O2 to water with the oxidation of a substrate (7). A number of AO protein X-ray studies are available, including a derivative with an end-on... 

The blue multicopper oxidases constitute a heterogeneous family of enzymes from different sources (7). In addition to the well characterized members of this family, ascorbate oxidase (45,46), laccase (47,48), and ceruloplasmin (49,50), all from higher organisms, two other proteins have attracted much recent interest FetSp, which is involved in iron uptake in yeast (51), and CueO, which is required for copper homeostasis in Escherichia coli (52). The characteristic reactivity of these enzymes is the one-electron oxidation of four substrate equivalents coupled to the four-electron reduction of dioxygen to water (1). These processes occur at a catalytic unit constituted by four copper atoms classified according to their spectroscopic properties in... 

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