Infrared Spectroscopy Elucidates the Inhibitor Binding Sites in a Metal-Dependent Formate Dehydrogenase.

Biological carbon dioxide (CO2 ) reduction is an important step by which organisms form valuable energy-richer molecules required for further metabolic processes. The Mo-dependent formate dehydrogenase (FDH) from Rhodobacter capsulatus catalyzes reversible formate oxidation to CO2 at a bis-molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide (bis-MGD) cofactor. To elucidate potential substrate binding sites relevant for the mechanism, we studied herein the interaction with the inhibitory molecules azide and cyanate, which are isoelectronic to CO2 and charged as formate. We employed infrared (IR) spectroscopy in combination with density functional theory (DFT) and inhibition kinetics. One distinct inhibitory molecule was found to bind to either a non-competitive or a competitive binding site in the secondary coordination sphere of the active site. Site-directed mutagenesis of key amino acid residues in the vicinity of the bis-MGD cofactor revealed changes in both non-competitive and competitive binding, whereby the inhibitor is in case of the latter interaction presumably bound between the cofactor and the adjacent Arg587.

The role of electron correlations in the binding properties of Ca, Sr, and Ba.

In order to apply wavefunction-based correlation methods to solids it is necessary to have reliable Hartree-Fock (HF) results for the infinite system of interest. We performed Hartree-Fock calculations for the group 2 heavy alkali-earth metals Ca, Sr, and Ba. For that, basis sets of valence-double-ζ quality have been optimized for the periodic systems. In all cases small-core pseudopotentials were used to deal with the scalar-relativistic effects. We determine the cohesive energies, the equilibrium volumes and the bulk moduli of the systems at the Hartree-Fock level and compare them with experimental data as well as the results of density functional theory calculations. Relativistic effects in the case of Ba are estimated by using a non-relativistic pseudopotential. The comparative HF versus the density functional theory (DFT) study of the electronic structures of Ca, Sr, and Ba has been performed.