Sulfite oxidase intramolecular electron transfer

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. 

With the exception of the recently reported DMSO reductases from bacteria (71,72), all of the enzymes of Table I contain additional redox active prosthetic groups besides Mo-co. Substrate oxidation (reduction) occurs at the molybdenum center, and electrons are removed (added) via one of the other prosthetic groups. These two processes are coupled by intramolecular electron transfer between the molybdenum center and the other redox centers of the enzyme. Results for xanthine oxidase and sulfite oxidase and approaches to modeling the coupling in sulfite oxidase are summarized below. 

Sulfite oxidase contains an oxo-molybdenum center and a 6-type cytochrome. The proposed catalytic sequence (254-256) for the enzyme is shown in Fig. 16. Oxidation of sulfite to sulfate, a two-electron process, occurs at the molybdenum center with concomitant reduction of the molybdenum from VI to IV. Electrons are removed from the enzyme by interactions of the heme of the 6-type cytochrome with exogenous cytochrome c, a one-electron process. Thus, the proposed mechanism of Fig. 16 involves two separate intramolecular electron transfers be-... 

Fig. 16. Proposed catalytic cycle of sulfite oxidase, showing the two postulated intramolecular electron transfer processes, A and B. Process B has been studied by laser flash photolysis. Adapted with permission from Kipke et al. (256). Copyright 1988, American Chemical Society.

Microcoulometric titrations of sulfite oxidase suggest that both the magnitude and the direction of the driving force for intramolecular electron transfer between the molybdenum and the iron centers of sulfite oxidase can be modulated by pH and anion concentration (78). At low pH and/or high chloride the Mo(VI) center appears to be reduced... 

The catalytic cycle is completed with re-oxidation of the molybdenum first to Mo(v), and then to Mo(vi), by intramolecular electron transfer to the cytochrome with cytochrome c serving as the external electron acceptor. Like xanthine oxidase, sulfite oxidase was among the very earliest to which XAS... 

These kinetics data are consistent with a preequilibrium dissociation of dmf from the molybdenum center to form a reactive five-coordinate species that rapidly reduces the Fe(III) center via an inner sphere (halogen transfer) reaction. Other one-electron atom transfer reactions are known in oxo-molybdenum chemistry (262). An innersphere (atom transfer) mechanism is not a viable model for intramolecular transfer in sulfite oxidase because in the enzyme the Mo and Fe centers are almost certainly held too far apart by the protein framework. Moreover, the 65-type heme center of sulfite oxidase is six-coordinate with axial histidine ligands from the protein and hence cannot participate in atom transfer reactions. 

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