Mechanism of molybdate insertion into pterin-based molybdenum cofactors.

The molybdenum cofactor (Moco) is found in the active site of numerous important enzymes that are critical to biological processes. The bidentate ligand that chelates molybdenum in Moco is the pyranopterin dithiolene (molybdopterin, MPT). However, neither the mechanism of molybdate insertion into MPT nor the structure of Moco prior to its insertion into pyranopterin molybdenum enzymes is known. Here, we report this final maturation step, where adenylated MPT (MPT-AMP) and molybdate are the substrates. X-ray crystallography of the Arabidopsis thaliana Mo-insertase variant Cnx1E S269D D274S identified adenylated Moco (Moco-AMP) as an unexpected intermediate in this reaction sequence. X-ray absorption spectroscopy revealed the first coordination sphere geometry of Moco trapped in the Cnx1E active site. We have used this structural information to deduce a mechanism for molybdate insertion into MPT-AMP. Given their high degree of structural and sequence similarity, we suggest that this mechanism is employed by all eukaryotic Mo-insertases.

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy and Theoretical Investigation of the Reductive Protonation of Cyclopentadienyl Cobalt Compounds.

Cobalt(III) hydrides, formed via protonation of basic cobalt(I) centers, have long been recognized as key intermediates in the electrocatalytic reduction of protons to hydrogen. An understanding of the structural and electronic factors that govern their formation is key to developing more efficient and potent catalysts. A combination of Co K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy, extended X-ray absorption fine structure, density functional theory (DFT), and time-dependent DFT methods have been used to investigate several cyclopentadienyl (Cp) Co(III)L (L = ligand) species and their two-electron reduced Co(I) analogues. The results reveal that when L is strongly π-accepting, the reduced species demonstrates strong backbonding between the electron-rich Co(I) center and the ligand L, resulting in a weakly basic Co center that does not protonate to form a Co(III)-H. In contrast, a weakly π-accepting or σ-donating ligand system results in an electron-rich Co(I) center, which is readily protonated to form a Co(III)-H. This study reveals the strength of a combined X-ray spectroscopy/theory method in understanding the role of ligands in tuning the electronic structure and subsequent reactivity of the metal center.

Ground State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Chemical Shifts Predict Charge-Separated Excited State Lifetimes.

Dichalcogenolene platinum(II) diimine complexes, (LE,E')Pt(bpy), are characterized by charge-separated dichalcogenolene donor (LE,E') → diimine acceptor (bpy) ligand-to-ligand charge transfer (LL'CT) excited states that lead to their interesting photophysics and potential use in solar energy conversion applications. Despite the intense interest in these complexes, the chalcogen dependence on the lifetime of the triplet LL'CT excited state remains unexplained. Three new (LE,E')Pt(bpy) complexes with mixed chalcogen donors exhibit decay rates that are dominated by a spin-orbit mediated nonradiative pathway, the magnitude of which is proportional to the anisotropic covalency provided by the mixed-chalcogen donor ligand environment. This anisotropic covalency is dramatically revealed in the 13C NMR chemical shifts of the donor carbons that bear the chalcogens and is further probed by S K-edge XAS. Remarkably, the NMR chemical shift differences also correlate with the spin-orbit matrix element that connects the triplet excited state with the ground state. Consequently, triplet LL'CT excited state lifetimes are proportional to both functions, demonstrating that specific ground state NMR chemical shifts can be used to evaluate spin-orbit coupling contributions to excited state lifetimes.

Cobalt- and Rhodium-Corrole-Triphenylphosphine Complexes Revisited: The Question of a Noninnocent Corrole.

A reinvestigation of cobalt-corrole-triphenylphosphine complexes has yielded an unexpectedly subtle picture of their electronic structures. UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, skeletal bond length alternations observed in X-ray structures, and broken-symmetry DFT (B3LYP) calculations suggest partial CoII-corrole•2- character for these complexes. The same probes applied to the analogous rhodium corroles evince no evidence of a noninnocent corrole. X-ray absorption spectroscopic studies showed that the Co K rising edge of Co[TPC](PPh3) (TPC = triphenylcorrole) is red-shifted by ∼1.8 eV relative to the bona fide Co(III) complexes Co[TPC](py)2 and Co[TPP](py)Cl (TPP = tetraphenylporphyrin, py = pyridine), consistent with a partial CoII-corrole•2- description for Co[TPC](PPh3). Electrochemical measurements have shown that both the Co and Rh complexes undergo two reversible oxidations and one to two irreversible reductions. In particular, the first reduction of the Rh corroles occurs at significantly more negative potentials than that of the Co corroles, reflecting significantly higher stability of the Rh(III) state relative to Co(III). Together, the results presented herein suggest that cobalt-corrole-triphenylphosphine complexes are significantly noninnocent with moderate CoII-corrole•2- character, underscoring-yet again-the ubiquity of ligand noninnocence among first-row transition metal corroles.

Ligand Noninnocence in Iron Corroles: Insights from Optical and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopies and Electrochemical Redox Potentials.

Two new series of iron meso-tris(para-X-phenyl)corrole (TpXPC) complexes, Fe[TpXPC]Ph and Fe[TpXPC]Tol, in which X=CF3 , H, Me, and OMe, and Tol=p-methylphenyl (p-tolyl), have been synthesized, allowing a multitechnique electronic-structural comparison with the corresponding FeCl, FeNO, and Fe2 (µ-O) TpXPC derivatives. Optical spectroscopy revealed that the Soret maxima of the FePh and FeTol series are insensitive to the phenyl para substituent, consistent with the presumed innocence of the corrole ligand in these compounds. Accordingly, we may be increasingly confident in the ability of the substituent effect criterion to serve as a probe of corrole noninnocence. Furthermore, four complexes-Fe[TPC]Cl, Fe[TPC](NO), {Fe[TPC]}2 O, and Fe[TPC]Ph-were selected for a detailed XANES investigation of the question of ligand noninnocence. The intensity-weighted average energy (IWAE) positions were found to exhibit rather modest variations (0.8 eV over the series of corroles). The integrated Fe-K pre-edge intensities, on the other hand, vary considerably, with a 2.5 fold increase for Fe[TPC]Ph relative to Fe[TPC]Cl and Fe[TPC](NO). Given the approximately C4v local symmetry of the Fe in all the complexes, the large increase in intensity for Fe[TPC]Ph may be attributed to a higher number of 3d holes, consistent with an expected FeIV -like description, in contrast to Fe[TPC]Cl and Fe[TPC](NO), in which the Fe is thought to be FeIII -like. These results afford strong validation of XANES as a probe of ligand noninnocence in metallocorroles. Electrochemical redox potentials, on the other hand, were found not to afford a simple probe of ligand noninnocence in Fe corroles.

X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy Reveals an Organometallic Ni-C Bond in the CO-Treated Form of Acetyl-CoA Synthase.

Acetyl-CoA synthase (ACS) is a key enzyme in the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway of anaerobic CO2 fixation, which has long been proposed to operate by a novel mechanism involving a series of protein-bound organometallic (Ni-CO, methyl-Ni, and acetyl-Ni) intermediates. Here we report the first direct structural evidence of the proposed metal-carbon bond. We describe the preparation of the highly active metal-replete enzyme and near-quantitative generation of the kinetically competent carbonylated intermediate. This advance has allowed a combination of Ni and Fe K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy and extended X-ray absorption fine structure experiments along with density functional theory calculations. The data reveal that CO binds to the proximal Ni of the six-metal metallocenter at the active site and undergoes dramatic structural and electronic perturbation in forming this organometallic Ni-CO intermediate. This direct identification of a Ni-carbon bond in the catalytically competent CO-bound form of the A cluster of ACS provides definitive experimental structural evidence supporting the proposed organometallic mechanism of anaerobic acetyl-CoA synthesis.

A Model for the Active-Site Formation Process in DMSO Reductase Family Molybdenum Enzymes Involving Oxido-Alcoholato and Oxido-Thiolato Molybdenum(VI) Core Structures.

New bis(ene-1,2-dithiolato)-oxido-alcoholato molybdenum(VI) and -oxido-thiolato molybdenum(VI) anionic complexes, denoted as [Mo(VI)O(ER)L2](-) (E = O, S; L = dimethoxycarboxylate-1,2-ethylenedithiolate), were obtained from the reaction of the corresponding dioxido-molybdenum(VI) precursor complex with either an alcohol or a thiol in the presence of an organic acid (e.g., 10-camphorsulfonic acid) at low temperature. The [Mo(VI)O(ER)L2](-) complexes were isolated and characterized, and the structure of [Mo(VI)O(OEt)L2](-) was determined by X-ray crystallography. The Mo(VI) center in [Mo(VI)O(OEt)L2](-) exhibits a distorted octahedral geometry with the two ene-1,2-dithiolate ligands being symmetry inequivalent. The computed structure of [Mo(VI)O(SR)L2](-) is essentially identical to that of [Mo(VI)O(OR)L2](-). The electronic structures of the resulting molybdenum(VI) complexes were evaluated using electronic absorption spectroscopy and bonding calculations. The nature of the distorted O(h) geometry in these [Mo(VI)O(EEt)L2](-) complexes results in a lowest unoccupied molecular orbital wave function that possesses strong π* interactions between the Mo(d(xy)) orbital and the cis S(p(z)) orbital localized on one sulfur donor from a single ene-1,2-dithiolate ligand. The presence of a covalent Mo-S(dithiolene) bonding interaction in these monooxido Mo(VI) compounds contributes to their low-energy ligand-to-metal charge transfer transitions. A second important d-p π bonding interaction derives from the ∼180° O(oxo)-Mo-E-C dihedral angle involving the alcoholate and thiolate donors, and this contributes to ancillary ligand contributions to the electronic structure of these species. The formation of [Mo(VI)O(OEt)L2](-) and [Mo(VI)O(SEt)L2](-) from the dioxidomolybdenum(VI) precursor may be regarded as a model for the active-site formation process that occurs in the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family of pyranopterin molybdenum enzymes.

Oxyl and hydroxyl radical transfer in mitochondrial amidoxime reducing component-catalyzed nitrite reduction.

A combination of electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and computational approaches has provided insight into the nature of the reaction coordinate for the one-electron reduction of nitrite by the mitochondrial amidoxime reducing component (mARC) enzyme. The results show that a paramagnetic Mo(V) species is generated when reduced enzyme is exposed to nitrite, and an analysis of the resulting EPR hyperfine parameters confirms that mARC is remarkably similar to the low-pH form of sulfite oxidase. Two mechanisms for nitrite reduction have been considered. The first shows a modest reaction barrier of 14 kcal/mol for the formation of ·NO from unprotonated nitrite substrate. In marked contrast, protonation of the substrate oxygen proximal to Mo in the Mo(IV)-O-N-O substrate-bound species results in barrierless conversion to products. A fragment orbital analysis reveals a high degree of Mo-O(H)-N-O covalency that provides a π-orbital pathway for one-electron transfer to the substrate and defines orbital constraints on the Mo-substrate geometry for productive catalysis in mARC and other pyranopterin molybdenum enzymes that catalyze this one-electron transformation.

Molybdenum site structure of MOSC family proteins.

Mo K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been used to probe as-isolated structures of the MOSC family proteins pmARC-1 and HMCS-CT. The Mo K-edge near-edge spectrum of HMCS-CT is shifted ~2.5 eV to lower energy compared to the pmARC-1 spectrum, which indicates that as-isolated HMCS-CT is in a more reduced state than pmARC-1. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure analysis indicates significant structural differences between pmARC-1 and HMCS-CT, with the former being a dioxo site and the latter possessing only a single terminal oxo ligand. The number of terminal oxo donors is consistent with pmARC-1 being in the Mo(VI) oxidation state and HMCS-CT in the Mo(IV) state. These structures are in accord with oxygen-atom-transfer reactivity for pmARC-1 and persulfide bond cleavage chemistry for HMCS-CT.

Ligand control of donor-acceptor excited-state lifetimes.

Transient absorption and emission spectroscopic studies on a series of diimineplatinum(II) dichalcogenolenes, LPtL', reveal charge-separated dichalcogenolene → diimine charge-transfer (LL'CT) excited-state lifetimes that display a remarkable and nonperiodic dependence on the heteroatoms of the dichalcogenolene ligand. Namely, there is no linear relationship between the observed lifetimes and the principle quantum number of the E donors. The results are explained in terms of heteroatom-dependent singlet-triplet (S-T) energy gaps and anisotropic covalency contributions to the M-E (E = O, S, Se) bonding scheme that control rates of intersystem crossing. For the dioxolene complex, 1-O,O', E(T2) > E(S1) and rapid nonradiative decay occurs from S1 to S0. However, E(T2) ≤ E(S1) for the heavy-atom congeners, and this provides a mechanism for rapid intersystem crossing. Subsequent internal conversion to T1 in 3-S,S produces a long-lived, emissive triplet. The two LPtL' complexes with mixed chalcogen donors and 5-Se,Se show lifetimes intermediate between those of 1-O,O' and 3-S,S.

Oxo-carboxylato-molybdenum(VI) complexes possessing dithiolene ligands related to the active site of type II DMSOR family molybdoenzymes.

Spectroscopic and kinetic studies indicate that oxo-carboxylato-molybdenum(VI) bis-dithiolene complexes, (Mo(VI)O(p-X-OBz)L2), have been generated at low temperature as active site structural models for the type II class of pyranopterin molybdenum DMSOR family enzymes. A DFT analysis of low energy charge transfer bands shows that these complexes possess a Mo-S(dithiolene) π-bonding interaction between the Mo(d(xy)) redox active molecular orbital and a cis S(p(z)) donor orbital located on one of the dithiolene ligands.

Multi-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy. 1. X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis of a biomimetic model of FeFe-hydrogenase.

In this work, we demonstrate the potential of multi-edge X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) analysis in completely defining the ground state electronic structure of a prototypical biomimetic complex of the [2Fe]-subcluster of the catalytic H-cluster of FeFe-hydrogenase. The spectral features at the ionization thresholds for Fe, S, C, and O 1s (K-edge) and Fe 2p (L-edge) core electrons were considered simultaneously to obtain the atomic compositions of the unoccupied frontier molecular orbitals. A systematic error analysis was carried out at the most informative S K-edge for spectra collected by multiple detection methods, at various data collection temperatures, and different sample preparation protocols. As expected for the difference in bonding between bridging and terminal Fe-S(thiolate) coordination, the Fe-S bond is more covalent in the [2Fe]-biomimetic complex with formally iron(I) centers (36 ± 2% S character per Fe-S bond) than in the previously described [2Fe-2S] clusters (25 ± 3% S character per Fe-S bond) with formally iron(III) centers. An electron hole-based analysis of the pre-edge features at Fe K-, Fe L-, and S K-edges experimentally defines the composition of the first three frontier unoccupied molecular orbitals to contain 4% Fe 4p, 44% Fe 3d, and 24% S 3p contributions per electron hole, respectively. The complementary CO ligand contribution thus can be defined as 28% per electron hole. These experimental orbital covalency values are important in rationalizing redox properties, electrophilicity of the metals, or nucleophilicity of the ligands, and critically evaluating the absolute accuracy of electronic structure calculations.

Dithiomethylether as a ligand in the hydrogenase h-cluster.

An X-ray crystallographic refinement of the H-cluster of [FeFe]-hydrogenase from Clostridium pasteurianum has been carried out to close-to atomic resolution and is the highest resolution [FeFe]-hydrogenase presented to date. The 1.39 A, anisotropically refined [FeFe]-hydrogenase structure provides a basis for examining the outstanding issue of the composition of the unique nonprotein dithiolate ligand of the H-cluster. In addition to influencing the electronic structure of the H-cluster, the composition of the ligand has mechanistic implications due to the potential of the bridge-head gamma-group participating in proton transfer during catalysis. In this work, sequential density functional theory optimizations of the dithiolate ligand embedded in a 3.5-3.9 A protein environment provide an unbiased approach to examining the most likely composition of the ligand. Structural, conformational, and energetic considerations indicate a preference for dithiomethylether as an H-cluster ligand and strongly disfavor the dithiomethylammonium as a catalytic base for hydrogen production.