Use of a chemical trigger for electron transfer to characterize a precursor to cluster X in assembly of the iron-radical cofactor of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase.

A key step in generation of the catalytically essential tyrosyl radical (Y122(*)) in protein R2 of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase is electron transfer (ET) from the near-surface residue, tryptophan 48 (W48), to a (Fe(2)O(2))(4+) complex formed by addition of O(2) to the carboxylate-bridged diiron(II) cluster. Because this step is rapid, the (Fe(2)O(2))(4+) complex does not accumulate and, therefore, has not been characterized. The product of the ET step is a "diradical" intermediate state containing the well-characterized Fe(IV)Fe(III) cluster, X, and a W48 cation radical (W48(+)(*)). The latter may be reduced from solution to complete the two-step transfer of an electron to the buried diiron site. In this study, a (Fe(2)O(2))(4+) state that is probably the precursor to the X-W48(+)(*) diradical state in the reaction of the wild-type protein (R2-wt) has been characterized by exploitation of the observation that in R2 variants with W48 replaced with alanine (A), the otherwise disabled ET step can be mediated by indole compounds. Mixing of the Fe(II) complex of R2-W48A/Y122F with O(2) results in accumulation of an intermediate state that rapidly converts to X upon mixing with 3-methylindole (3-MI). The state comprises at least two species, of which each exhibits an apparent Mössbauer quadrupole doublet with parameters characteristic of high-spin Fe(III) ions. The isomer shifts of these complexes and absence of magnetic hyperfine coupling in their Mössbauer spectra suggest that both are antiferromagnetically coupled diiron(III) clusters. The fact that both rapidly convert to X upon treatment with a molecule (3-MI) shown in the preceding paper to mediate ET in W48A R2 variants indicates that they are more oxidized than X by one electron, which suggests that they have a bound peroxide equivalent. Their failure to exhibit either the long-wavelength absorption (at 650-750 nm) or Mössbauer doublet with high isomer shift (>0.6 mm/s) that are characteristic of the putatively mu-1,2-peroxo-bridged diiron(III) intermediates that have been detected in the reactions of methane monooxygenase (P or H(peroxo)) and variants of R2 with the D84E ligand substitution suggests that they have geometries and electronic structures different from those of the previously characterized complexes. Supporting this deduction, the peroxodiiron(III) complex that accumulates in R2-W48A/D84E is much less reactive toward 3-MI-mediated reduction than the (Fe(2)O(2))(4+) state in R2-W48A/Y122F. It is postulated that the new (Fe(2)O(2))(4+) state is either an early adduct in an orthogonal pathway for oxygen activation or, more likely, the successor to a (mu-1,2-peroxo)diiron(III) complex that is extremely fleeting in R2 proteins with the wild-type ligand set but longer lived in D84E-containing variants.

Mediation by indole analogues of electron transfer during oxygen activation in variants of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase R2 lacking the electron-shuttling tryptophan 48.

Activation of dioxygen by the carboxylate-bridged diiron(II) cluster in the R2 subunit of class I ribonucleotide reductase from Escherichia coli results in the one-electron oxidation of tyrosine 122 (Y122) to a stable radical (Y122*). A key step in this reaction is the rapid transfer of a single electron from a near-surface residue, tryptophan 48 (W48), to an adduct between O(2) and diiron(II) cluster to generate a readily reducible cation radical (W48(+)(*)) and the formally Fe(IV)Fe(III) intermediate known as cluster X. Previous work showed that this electron injection step is blocked in the R2 variant with W48 replaced by phenylalanine [Krebs, C., Chen, S., Baldwin, J., Ley, B. A., Patel, U., Edmondson, D. E., Huynh, B. H., and Bollinger, J. M., Jr. (2000) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122, 12207-12219]. In this study, we show that substitution of W48 with alanine similarly disables the electron transfer (ET) but also permits its chemical mediation by indole compounds. In the presence of an indole mediator, O(2) activation in the R2-W48A variant produces approximately 1 equiv of stable Y122* and more than 1 equiv of the normal (micro-oxo)diiron(III) product. In the absence of a mediator, the variant protein generates primarily altered Fe(III) products and only one-fourth as much stable Y122* because, as previously reported for R2-W48F, most of the Y122* that is produced decays as a consequence of the inability of the protein to mediate reductive quenching of one of the two oxidizing equivalents of the initial diiron(II)-O(2) complex. Mediation of ET is effective in W48A variants containing additional substitutions that also impact the reaction mechanism or outcome. In the reaction of R2-W48A/F208Y, the presence of mediator suppresses formation of the Y208-derived diiron(III)-catecholate product (which is predominant in R2-F208Y in the absence of reductants) in favor of Y122*. In the reaction of R2-W48A/D84E, the presence of mediator affects the outcome of decay of the peroxodiiron(III) intermediate known to accumulate in D84E variants, increasing the yield of Y122* by as much as 2.2-fold to a final value of 0.75 equiv and suppressing formation of a 490 nm absorbing product that results from decay of the two-electron oxidized intermediate in the absence of a functional ET apparatus.