Spectroscopic and electronic structure study of the enzyme-substrate complex of intradiol dioxygenases: substrate activation by a high-spin ferric non-heme iron site.

Various mechanisms have been proposed for the initial O(2) attack in intradiol dioxygenases based on different electronic descriptions of the enzyme-substrate (ES) complex. We have examined the geometric and electronic structure of the high-spin ferric ES complex of protocatechuate 3,4-dioxygenase (3,4-PCD) with UV/visible absorption, circular dichroism (CD), magnetic CD (MCD), and variable-temperature variable-field (VTVH) MCD spectroscopies. The experimental data were coupled with DFT and INDO/S-CI calculations, and an experimentally calibrated bonding description was obtained. The broad absorption spectrum for the ES complex in the 6000-31000 cm(-1) region was resolved into at least five individual transitions, assigned as ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) from the protocatechuate (PCA) substrate and Tyr408. From our DFT calculations, all five LMCT transitions originate from the PCA and Tyr piop orbitals to the ferric dpi orbitals. The strong pi covalent donor interactions dominate the bonding in the ES complex. Using hypothetical Ga(3+)-catecholate/semiquinone complexes as references, 3,4-PCD-PCA was found to be best described as a highly covalent Fe(3+)-catecholate complex. The covalency is distributed unevenly among the four PCA valence orbitals, with the strongest interaction between the piop-sym and Fe dxz orbitals. This strong pi interaction, as reflected in the lowest energy PCA-to-Fe(3+) LMCT transition, is responsible for substrate activation for the O(2) reaction of intradiol dioxygenases. This involves a multi-electron-transfer (one beta and two alpha) mechanism, with Fe3+ acting as a buffer for the spin-forbidden two-electron redox process between PCA and O(2) in the formation of the peroxy-bridged ESO2 intermediate. The Fe ligand field overcomes the spin-forbidden nature of the triplet O(2) reaction, which potentially results in an intermediate spin state (S = 3/2) on the Fe(3+) center which is stabilized by a change in coordination along the reaction coordinate.