A stopped-flow apparatus for infrared spectroscopy of aqueous solutions.

IR spectroscopy has been widely applied in the study of photo-activated biological processes such as photosynthesis, but has not been applied to the study of reacting systems which require rapid mixing of aqueous solutions. This has been due in part to the high pressure needed to make an aqueous solution flow rapidly through the 50 microns optical pathlength between the plates in an IR cuvette suitable for use with 2H2O and the high viscosity of the concentrated protein solutions required to generate measurable IR signals. An apparatus, based largely on conventional stopped-flow technology, is described which achieves mixing well within the time-resolved performance (approximately 40 ms) of modern Fourier-transform IR (FTIR) spectrometers, since the dead time of the mixing device is approximately 15 ms. It has proved possible to achieve efficient mixing by using a simple six-jet mixing device. This is probably at least in part because of the high back pressure which develops when aqueous fluid is passed rapidly through the short pathlength of the cuvette and which promotes turbulent flow. Several examples of measurements of the deacylation of acylchymotrypsins are provided which demonstrate the operation of the apparatus in conjunction with a spectrometer capable of scanning at four scans/s. For cinnamoyl-chymotrypsin, isotope-edited spectra have been obtained which show somewhat lower resolution than is achieved by conventional scanning methods, since some smoothing has to be applied to the spectra. Difference spectra of the acylation of chymotrypsin by glycylglycine p-nitrophenyl ester have been obtained by averaging ten stopped-flow shots and show good signal-to-noise ratio without smoothing. It is predicted that this apparatus is likely to find a variety of applications in the study of enzyme-catalysed reactions, since the spectra are relatively rich in structural information, and isotope editing greatly enhances the interpretability of the spectra.

Analysis of hydrogen bonding in enzyme-substrate complexes of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase by infrared spectroscopy and site-directed mutagenesis.

Chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) reversibly transfers an acetyl group between CoA and the 3-hydroxyl of either chloramphenicol (Cm) or 1-acetylchloramphenicol (1AcCm). The products of the forward reactions, 3-acetylchloramphenicol (3-AcCm) and 1,3-diacetylchloramphenicol (1,3Ac2-Cm), are the substrates for the reverse reaction. The role of the 3-acetyl carbonyl group in the binding of the substrates 3AcCm and 1,3Ac2Cm to CAT has been investigated using infrared spectroscopy. Comparison of difference spectra (3-[12C = O]acetyl- minus 3-[13C = O]acetyl-) obtained for the binary complexes of 3AcCm with wild-type CAT, and with a variant wherein serine-148 is replaced by alanine (S148A), reveals a large (9 cm-1) down frequency shift for the 3-acetyl carbonyl stretch in the wild-type complex, indicative of a hydrogen bond between this carbonyl and the hydroxyl group of Ser-148. The carbonyl bandwidth in the wild-type complex is reduced by 33% compared to that for the complex with S148A, indicating restriction of carbonyl mobility and dispersion in the former, an observation consistent with the proposed hydrogen bond between the ester carbonyl and the hydroxyl of Ser-148. Repetition of the experiment using 1,3Ac2Cm as the ligand reveals a frequency shift of only 3 cm-1 between wild-type and S148A complexes, indicating only a small change in the strength of carbonyl interaction.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The binding of amide substrate analogues to phospholipase A2. Studies by 13C-nuclear-magnetic-resonance and infrared spectroscopy.

(R)-(2-dodecanamidoisohexyl)phosphocholine (DAHPC), labelled with 13C at the amide carbonyl group, has been synthesized and its binding to bovine pancreatic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) studied by n.m.r. and i.r. spectroscopy. Two-dimensional 1H-n.m.r. spectra show that, in the presence of Ca2+, DAHPC binds to the active site of the enzyme in a similar manner to other phospholipid amide substrate analogues. The environment of the labelled carbonyl group has been investigated by a combination of 13C n.m.r. and difference-Fourier-transform i.r. spectroscopy. The carbonyl resonance shifts 3 p.p.m. downfield on the binding of DAHPC to PLA2. The carbonyl absorption frequency decreases by 14-18 cm-1, accompanied by a marked sharpening of the absorption band. These results indicate that the carbonyl bond undergoes significant polarization in the enzyme-ligand complex, facilitated by the enzyme-bound Ca2+ ion. This suggests that ground-state strain is likely to promote catalysis in the case of substrate binding. Simple calculations, based on the i.r. data, indicate that the carbonyl bond is weakened by 5-9 kJ.mol-1. This is the first report of observation of the amide vibration of a bound ligand against the strong background of protein amide vibrations.

Analysis and elimination of protein perturbation in infrared difference spectra of acyl-chymotrypsin ester carbonyl groups by using 13C isotopic substitution.

I.r. spectroscopy has been applied to the study of hydrogen-bonding of the unique ester carbonyl group of acylchymotrypsins in the oxyanion hole of the enzyme. This catalytic device provides electrophilic stabilization of negative charge in the transition states and tetrahedral intermediates along the reaction pathway. The use of 13C isotope substitution of the ester carbonyl group reinforces the previous observation [White & Wharton (1990) Biochem. J. 270, 627-637] that the ester carbonyl group is significantly polarized in the ground state by hydrogen bonding in the oxyanion hole. I.r. difference spectra of [carbonyl-12C]-minus [carbonyl-13C]-cinnamoyl-chymotrypsin as well as each of these acylenzymes minus free enzyme are reported. These spectra show that the contribution of protein perturbation (i.e. spectral features that arise from the enzyme which is distorted on acylation) in [carbonyl-12C]cinnamoyl-chymotrypsin minus free enzyme spectra is significant. The contribution of the perturbation components of the spectra is pH-dependent and can represent up to 50% of the total absorbance in the spectral region from 1690 to 1740 cm-1. Use of the isotopic difference method has allowed problems associated with protein perturbation to be eliminated. Similar difference spectra are presented for dihydrocinnamoyl-chymotrypsin. In this case the effect of perturbation is very marked and leads to the cancellation of the band assigned to the non-bonded conformation of the acyl group which has previously only been observed at higher pH. The isotopic difference method again proves reliable and shows that the frequency difference previously used to calculate the ground-state electronic strain induced by the oxyanion-hole catalytic device is not affected by the perturbation, although the amplitudes of the spectral features are different. A study of the deacylation of cinnamoyl-chymotrypsin in water and deuterium oxide using both u.v. and i.r. spectroscopies has confirmed that the use of deuterium oxide as solvent has no serious effect on the deacylation behaviour of the enzyme. I.r. bands assigned to nonproductive and productive conformers decline identically during deacylation, which shows that the conformers are in dynamic exchange on the reaction time-scale.