Spectroscopic studies sulfite oxidase

The most detailed spectroscopic and electronic structure studies of metallo-mono(dithiolenes) have focused on the nature of ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (LLCT) excitations in [M(diimine)(dithiolene)] complexes (112, 250-257, 262, 264, 295-301) and in monooxo molybdenum dithiolenes (19, 20, 22, 23) as models for pyranopterin molybdenum enzymes such as sulfite oxidase (SO). Since metallo-mono(dithiolenes) generally possess little or no symmetry, detailed spectrosopic and electronic structure studies of this class of metallo-dithiolenes have only recently begun to appear. The analysis of the spectroscopic data has been aided by the fact that the dithiolene-to-metal charge... 

The chapter consists of nine sections. Sections II through VII deal with the pterin-containing molybdenum enzymes. Biochemical and model studies of molybdopterin, Mo-co, and related species are described in Section II. In Section III, we briefly survey physical and spectroscopic techniques employed in the study of the enzymes, and consider their impact upon the current understanding of the coordination about the molybdenum atom in sulfite oxidase and xanthine oxidase. Model studies are described in Sections IV and V. Section IV concentrates on structural and spectroscopic models, whereas Section V considers aspects of the reactivity of model and enzyme systems. The xanthine oxidase cycle (Section VI) and facets of intramolecular electron transfer in molybdenum enzymes (Section VII) are then treated. Section VIII describes the pterin-containing tungsten enzymes and the evolving model chemistry thereof Future directions are addressed in Section IX. 

The initial contribution to this volume provides a detailed overview of how spectroscopy and computations have been used in concert to probe the canonical members of each pyranopterin Mo enzyme family, as well as the pyranopterin dithiolene ligand itself. The discussion focuses on how a combination of enzyme geometric structure, spectroscopy and biochemical data have been used to arrive at an understanding of electronic structure contributions to reactivity in all of the major pyranopterin Mo enzyme families. A unique aspect of this discussion is that spectroscopic studies on relevant small molecule model compounds have been melded with analogous studies on the enzyme systems to arrive at a sophisticated description of active site electronic structure. As the field moves forward, it will become increasingly important to understand the structure, function and reaction mechanisms for the numerous non-canonical [ie. beyond sulfite oxidase, xanthine oxidase, DMSO reductase) pyranopterin Mo enzymes. 

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