The nature of the phosphate inhibitor complex of sulphite oxidase from electron-paramagnetic-resonance studies using oxygen-17.

Studies of the effect of substitution with 17O on the e.p.r. spectra at 9 and 35 GHz of Mo(V) in the phosphate complex of sulphite oxidase are reported. Substitution of 17O-enriched water for normal water, for samples of the enzymes reduced by sulphite in the presence of normal phosphate, produced no detectable effect on the e.p.r. signal. If phosphate substituted with 17O was used, coupling due to 17O, producing large anisotropic splittings in the spectrum, was clearly detectable. It is concluded that phosphate is co-ordinated directly to molybdenum in the active site of the enzyme, in an equatorial type of ligand position. An oxygen ligand must be displaced from the molybdenum in the process of binding the phosphate. Implications concerning the mechanism of the enzyme reactions are discussed.