Copper is an essential trace element in living systems, present in the parts per million concentration range. It is a key cofactor in a diverse array of biological oxidation-reduction reactions. These involve either outer-sphere electron transfer, as in the blue copper proteins and the Cu{sub A} site of cytochrome oxidase and nitrous oxide redutase, or inner-sphere electron transfer in the binding, activation, and reduction of dioxygen, superoxide, nitrite, and nitrous oxide. Copper sites have historically been divided into three classes based on their spectroscopic features, which reflect the geometric and electronic structure of the active site: type 1 (T1) or blue copper, type 2 (T2) or normal copper, and type 3 (T3) or coupled binuclear copper centers. 428 refs.

Multicopper Oxidases and Oxygenases

For present purposes, a protein-bound metal site consists of one or more metal ions and all protein side chain and exogenous bridging and terminal ligands that define the first coordination sphere of each metal ion. Such sites can be classified into five basic types with the indicated functions: (1) structural -- configuration (in part) of protein tertiary and/or quaternary structure; (2) storage -- uptake, binding, and release of metals in soluble form: (3) electron transfer -- uptake, release, and storage of electrons; (4) dioxygen binding -- metal-O{sub 2} coordination and decoordination; and (5) catalytic -- substrate binding, activation, and turnover. The authors present here a classification and structure/function analysis of native metal sites based on these functions, where 5 is an extensive class subdivided by the type of reaction catalyzed. Within this purview, coverage of the various site types is extensive, but not exhaustive. The purpose of this exposition is to present examples of all types of sites and to relate, insofar as is currently feasible, the structure and function of selected types. The authors largely confine their considerations to the sites themselves, with due recognition that these site features are coupled to protein structure at all levels. In themore » next section, the coordination chemistry of metalloprotein sites and the unique properties of a protein as a ligand are briefly summarized. Structure/function relationships are systematically explored and tabulations of structurally defined sites presented. Finally, future directions in bioinorganic research in the context of metal site chemistry are considered. 620 refs.« less

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Structural and Functional Aspects of Metal Sites in Biology

X-ray absorption Fe−K edge data on ferrous and ferric model complexes have been studied to establish a detailed understanding of the 1s → 3d pre-edge feature and its sensitivity to the electronic structure of the iron site. The energy position and splitting, and intensity distribution, of the pre-edge feature were found to vary systematically with spin state, oxidation state, geometry, and bridging ligation (for binuclear complexes). A methodology for interpreting the energy splitting and intensity distribution of the 1s → 3d pre-edge features was developed for high-spin ferrous and ferric complexes in octahedral, tetrahedral, and square pyramidal environments and low-spin ferrous and ferric complexes in octahedral environments. In each case, the allowable many-electron excited states were determined using ligand field theory. The energies of the excited states were calculated and compared to the energy splitting in the 1s → 3d pre-edge features. The relative intensities of electric quadrupole transitions...

A Multiplet Analysis of Fe K-Edge 1s → 3d Pre-Edge Features of Iron Complexes

Based on its generally accessible I/II redox couple and bioavailability, copper plays a wide variety of roles in nature that mostly involve electron transfer (ET), O2 binding, activation and reduction, NO2− and N2O reduction and substrate activation. Copper sites that perform ET are the mononuclear blue Cu site that has a highly covalent CuII-S(Cys) bond and the binuclear CuA site that has a Cu2S(Cys)2 core with a Cu-Cu bond that keeps the site delocalized (Cu(1.5)2) in its oxidized state. In contrast to inorganic Cu complexes, these metalloprotein sites transfer electrons rapidly often over long distances, as has been previously reviewed.1–4 Blue Cu and CuA sites will only be considered here in their relation to intramolecular ET in multi-center enzymes. The focus of this review is on the Cu enzymes (Figure 1). Many are involved in O2 activation and reduction, which has mostly been thought to involve at least two electrons to overcome spin forbiddenness and the low potential of the one electron reduction to superoxide (Figure 2).5,6 Since the Cu(III) redox state has not been observed in biology, this requires either more than one Cu center or one copper and an additional redox active organic cofactor. The latter is formed in a biogenesis reaction of a residue (Tyr) that is also Cu catalyzed in the first turnover of the protein. Recently, however, there have been a number of enzymes suggested to utilize one Cu to activate O2 by 1e− reduction to form a Cu(II)-O2•− intermediate (an innersphere redox process) and it is important to understand the active site requirements to drive this reaction. The oxidases that catalyze the 4e−reduction of O2 to H2O are unique in that they effectively perform this reaction in one step indicating that the free energy barrier for the second two-electron reduction of the peroxide product of the first two-electron step is very low. In nature this requires either a trinuclear Cu cluster (in the multicopper oxidases) or a Cu/Tyr/Heme Fe cluster (in the cytochrome oxidases). The former accomplishes this with almost no overpotential maximizing its ability to oxidize substrates and its utility in biofuel cells, while the latter class of enzymes uses the excess energy to pump protons for ATP synthesis. In bacterial denitrification, a mononuclear Cu center catalyzes the 1e- reduction of nitrite to NO while a unique µ4S2−Cu4 cluster catalyzes the reduction of N2O to N2 and H2O, a 2e− process yet requiring 4Cu’s. Finally there are now several classes of enzymes that utilize an oxidized Cu(II) center to activate a covalently bound substrate to react with O2.



Figure 1

Copper active sites in biology.





Figure 2

Latimer Diagram for Oxygen Reduction at pH = 7.0 Adapted from References 5 and 6.



This review presents in depth discussions of all these classes of Cu enzymes and the correlations within and among these classes. For each class we review our present understanding of the enzymology, kinetics, geometric structures, electronic structures and the reaction mechanisms these have elucidated. While the emphasis here is on the enzymology, model studies have significantly contributed to our understanding of O2 activation by a number of Cu enzymes and are included in appropriate subsections of this review. In general we will consider how the covalency of a Cu(II)–substrate bond can activate the substrate for its spin forbidden reaction with O2, how in binuclear Cu enzymes the exchange coupling between Cu’s overcomes the spin forbiddenness of O2 binding and controls electron transfer to O2 to direct catalysis either to perform two e− electrophilic aromatic substitution or 1e− H-atom abstraction, the type of oxygen intermediate that is required for H-atom abstraction from the strong C-H bond of methane (104 kcal/mol) and how the trinuclear Cu cluster and the Cu/Tyr/Heme Fe cluster achieve their very low barriers for the reductive cleavage of the O-O bond.

Much of the insight available into these mechanisms in Cu biochemistry has come from the application of a wide range of spectroscopies and the correlation of spectroscopic results to electronic structure calculations. Thus we start with a tutorial on the different spectroscopic methods utilized to study mononuclear and multinuclear Cu enzymes and their correlations to different levels of electronic structure calculations.

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Copper Active Sites in Biology

Structure and Spectroscopy of Copper−Dioxygen Complexes

Cu X-ray absorption edge features of 19 Cu(I) and 40 Cu(II) model complexes have been systematically studied and correlated with oxidation state and geometry. Studies of Cu(I) model complexes with different coordination number reveal that an 8983-8984-eV peak (assigned as the Cu 1s ..-->.. 4p transition) can be correlated in energy, shape, and intensity with ligation and site geometry of the cuprous ion. These Cu(I) edge features have been qualitatively interpreted with ligand field concepts. Alternatively, no Cu(II) complex exhibits a peak below 8985.0 eV. The limited intensity observed in the 8983-8985-eV region for some Cu(II) complexes is associated with the tail of an absorption peak at approx. 8986 eV which is affected by the covalency of the equatorial ligands. These models studies allow accurate calibration of a normalized difference edge procedure which is used for the quantitative determination of Cu(I) content in copper complexes of mixed oxidation state composition. This normalized difference edge analysis is then used to quantitatively determine the oxidation states of the copper sites in type 2 copper-depleted (T2D) and native forms of the multicopper oxidase, Rhus vernicifera laccase. The type 3 site of the T2D laccase is found to be fully reduced and stable tomore » oxidation by O/sub 2/ or by 25-fold protein equivalents of ferricyanide, but it can be oxidized by reaction with peroxide. The increase in intensity of the 330-nm absorption feature which results from peroxide titration of T2D laccase is found to correlate linearly with the percent of oxidation of the binuclear copper site.« less

X-ray absorption edge determination of the oxidation state and coordination number of copper: application to the type 3 site in Rhus vernicifera laccase and its reaction with oxygen

Low-temperature magnetic circular dichroism studies of native laccase: confirmation of a trinuclear copper active site

X-Ray Absorption Edge Determination of the Oxidation State and Coordination Number of Copper: Application to the Type 3 Site in Rhus vernicifera Laccase and Its Reaction with Oxygen

Chemical and spectroscopic studies of the coupled binuclear copper site in type 2 depleted Rhus laccase: comparison to the hemocyanins and tyrosinase

Binuclear and multimetal cluster centers are found in a wide variety of enzymes involved in electron transfer and small molecule activation. It is important to define the contributions of interactions between the metal ions in an active site to its structure and function. Attention is focussed on the coupled binuclear copper sites which occur in hemocyanin (reversible O2 binding), tyrosinase (O2 activation and hydroxylation) and laccase (O2 reduction to water). Excited state spectral studies on active site derivatives are used to define exogenous ligand bridging between the two coppers in the active sites of hemocyanin and tyrosinase. A chemical and spectroscopic comparison of the coupled site in hemocyanin to the binuclear center (T3) in laccase indicates that the sites are similar with respect to an endogenous bridge responsible for antiferromagnetic coupling but differ in that exogenous ligands bind to only one copper at the T3 site. In addition to the T3 coupled binuclear copper site, laccase contains two other coppers, the Type 1 and Type 2 centers. X-ray absorption edge spectral studies of the 1s→4p transition at 8984 eV are used to demonstrate that in the absence of the T2 copper the T3 site is reduced and will not react with O2. The role of the T2 and T3 coppers in exogenous ligand binding has been probed through low temperature MCD which allows a correlation between the excited state and ground state spectral features. Through these low temperature MCD studies it is demonstrated that one azide produces charge transfer intensity to both the paramagnetic T2 and the antiferromagnetic T3 center defining a new trinuclear copper active site which appears to be important in the irreversible multi-electron reduction of dioxygen to water.

Darlene J. Spira-Solomon

Papers

X-ray absorption edge determination of the oxidation state and coordination number of copper: application to the type 3 site in Rhus vernicifera laccase and its reaction with oxygen

Low-temperature magnetic circular dichroism studies of native laccase: confirmation of a trinuclear copper active site

X-Ray Absorption Edge Determination of the Oxidation State and Coordination Number of Copper: Application to the Type 3 Site in Rhus vernicifera Laccase and Its Reaction with Oxygen

Chemical and spectroscopic studies of the coupled binuclear copper site in type 2 depleted Rhus laccase: comparison to the hemocyanins and tyrosinase

Metal Cluster Active Sites in Proteines