Sulfur clusters

A substantial fraction of the named enzymes are oxido-reductases, responsible for shuttling electrons along metabolic pathways that reduce carbon dioxide to sugar (in the case of plants), or reduce oxygen to water (in the case of mammals). The oxido-reductases that drive these processes involve a small set of redox active cofactors , that is, small chemical groups that gain or lose electrons. These cofactors include iron porjDhyrins, iron-sulfur clusters and copper complexes as well as organic species that are ET active. 

Iron Sulfur Compounds. Many molecular compounds (18—20) are known in which iron is tetrahedraHy coordinated by a combination of thiolate and sulfide donors. Of the 10 or more stmcturaHy characterized classes of Fe—S compounds, the four shown in Figure 1 are known to occur in proteins. The mononuclear iron site REPLACE occurs in the one-iron bacterial electron-transfer protein mbredoxin. The [2Fe—2S] (10) and [4Fe—4S] (12) cubane stmctures are found in the 2-, 4-, and 8-iron ferredoxins, which are also electron-transfer proteins. The [3Fe—4S] voided cubane stmcture (11) has been found in some ferredoxins and in the inactive form of aconitase, the enzyme which catalyzes the stereospecific hydration—rehydration of citrate to isocitrate in the Krebs cycle. In addition, enzymes are known that contain either other types of iron sulfur clusters or iron sulfur clusters that include other metals. Examples include nitrogenase, which reduces N2 to NH at a MoFe Sg homocitrate cluster carbon monoxide dehydrogenase, which assembles acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) at a FeNiS site and hydrogenases, which catalyze the reversible reduction of protons to hydrogen gas. 

J-M Mouesca, JL Chen, F Noodleman, D Bashford, DA Case. Density functional/Poisson-Boltzmann calculations of redox potentials for iron-sulfur clusters. J Am Chem Soc 116 11898-11914, 1994. 

R Cammack. Eon-sulfur cluster in enzymes Themes and variations. Adv Inorg Chem 38 281-322, 1992. 

R Langen, GM Jensen, U Jacob, PJ Stephens, A Warshel. Protein control of iron-sulfur cluster redox potentials. J Biol Chem 267 25625-25627, 1992. 

PS Brereton, FJM Verhagen, ZH Zhou, MWW Adams. Effect of iron-sulfur cluster environment m modulating the thermodynamic properties and biological function of ferredoxm from Pyrococcus furiosus. Biochemistry 37 7351-7362, 1998. 

Nonrepetitive but well-defined structures of this type form many important features of enzyme active sites. In some cases, a particular arrangement of coil structure providing a specific type of functional site recurs in several functionally related proteins. The peptide loop that binds iron-sulfur clusters in both ferredoxin and high potential iron protein is one example. Another is the central loop portion of the E—F hand structure that binds a calcium ion in several calcium-binding proteins, including calmodulin, carp parvalbumin, troponin C, and the intestinal calcium-binding protein. This loop, shown in Figure 6.26, connects two short a-helices. The calcium ion nestles into the pocket formed by this structure. 

FIGURE 20.7 (a) The aconitase reaction converts citrate to cis-aconitate and then to isocitrate. Aconitase is stereospecific and removes the pro-/ hydrogen from the pro-/ arm of citrate, (b) The active site of aconitase. The iron-sulfur cluster (red) is coordinated by cysteines (yellow) and isocitrate (white). 

Inspection of the citrate structure shows a total of four chemically equivalent hydrogens, but only one of these—the pro-/J H atom of the pro-i arm of citrate—is abstracted by aeonitase, which is quite stereospecific. Formation of the double bond of aconitate following proton abstraction requires departure of hydroxide ion from the C-3 position. Hydroxide is a relatively poor leaving group, and its departure is facilitated in the aeonitase reaction by coordination with an iron atom in an iron-sulfur cluster. 

The final step of the reaction involves the transfer of two electrons from iron-sulfur clusters to coenzyme Q. Coenzyme Q is a mobile electron carrier. Its isoprenoid tail makes it highly hydrophobic, and it diffuses freely in the hydrophobic core of the inner mitochondrial membrane. As a result, it shuttles electrons from Complexes I and II to Complex III. The redox cycle of UQ is shown in Figure 21.5, and the overall scheme is shown schematically in Figure 21.6. 

Because of possible catalytic and biological relevance of metal-sulfur clusters, several such compounds of cobalt have been prepared. The action of H2S or M2S (M = alkali metal) on a non-aqueous solution of a convenient cobalt compound (often containing, or in the presence of, a phosphine) is a typical route. Diamagnetic [Co6Ss(PR3)6] (R = Et, Ph) comprise an octahedral array of metal atoms (Co-Co in the range 281.7 to 289.4pm), all faces capped by atoms,and show facile redox behaviour... 

When induced in macrophages, iNOS produces large amounts of NO which represents a major cytotoxic principle of those cells. Due to its affinity to protein-bound iron, NO can inhibit a number of key enzymes that contain iron in their catalytic centers. These include ribonucleotide reductase (rate-limiting in DNA replication), iron-sulfur cluster-dependent enzymes (complex I and II) involved in mitochondrial electron transport and cis-aconitase in the citric acid cycle. In addition, higher concentrations of NO,... 

Synthesis, structure and properties of some organometallic sulfur cluster compounds. P. J. Verga-mini and G. J. Kubas, Prog. Inorg. Chem., 1976, 21, 261-282 (40). 

Based on 68 isomers of sulfur clusters S ( i=3-ll), Au et al. have shown that two-fold coordination is generally favoured in sulfur clusters [55]. Structures with atom(s) in one-fold and three-fold coordinations are higher in energy. As a consequence, many large sulfur clusters exist as monocyclic rings while the open-chain forms are significantly less stable. 

The thermodynamic properties of sulfur clusters have been investigated by Steudel et al. [60] who examined the reaction enthalpies of the interconversion reactions... 

Fig. 34 Mass spectrum of sulfur clusters obtained by evaporation of liquid sulfur followed by cooling and adiabatic expansion of the vapor [209]. The figures at the peaks give the number of Sg molecules which represent this particular mass...

Metal polysulfido complexes have attracted much interest not only from the viewpoint of fundamental chemistry but also because of their potential for applications. Various types of metal polysulfido complexes have been reported as shown in Fig. 1. The diversity of the structures results from the nature of sulfur atoms which can adopt a variety of coordination environments (mainly two- and three-coordination) and form catenated structures with various chain lengths. On the other hand, transition metal polysulfides have attracted interest as catalysts and intermediates in enzymatic processes and in catalytic reactions of industrial importance such as the desulfurization of oil and coal. In addition, there has been much interest in the use of metal polysulfido complexes as precursors for metal-sulfur clusters. The chemistry of metal polysulfido complexes has been studied extensively, and many reviews have been published [1-10]. 

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