O2 Activation by Non-Heme Iron Enzymes.

The non-heme Fe enzymes are ubiquitous in nature and perform a wide range of functions involving O2 activation. These had been difficult to study relative to heme enzymes; however, spectroscopic methods that provide significant insight into the correlation of structure with function have now been developed. This Current Topics article summarizes both the molecular mechanism these enzymes use to control O2 activation in the presence of cosubstrates and the oxygen intermediates these reactions generate. Three types of O2 activation are observed. First, non-heme reactivity is shown to be different from heme chemistry where a low-spin FeIII-OOH non-heme intermediate directly reacts with substrate. Also, two subclasses of non-heme Fe enzymes generate high-spin FeIV═O intermediates that provide both σ and π frontier molecular orbitals that can control selectivity. Finally, for several subclasses of non-heme Fe enzymes, binding of the substrate to the FeII site leads to the one-electron reductive activation of O2 to an FeIII-superoxide capable of H atom abstraction and electrophilic attack.