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Molybdenum and tungsten are the only second and third-row transition elements with a known function in living organisms. The molybdenum and tungsten enzymes show common structural features, with the metal being bound by a pyranopterin-dithiolene cofactor called molybdopterin. They catalyze a variety of oxygen transferase reactions coupled with two-electron redox chemistry in which the metal cycles between the +6 and +4 oxidation states usually with water, either product or substrate, providing the oxygen. The functional roles filled by the molybdenum and tungsten enzymes are diverse; for example, they play essential roles in microbial respiration, in the uptake of nitrogen in green plants, and in human health. Together, the enzymes form a superfamily which is among the most prevalent known, being found in all kingdoms of life. This review discusses what is known of the active site structures and the mechanisms, together with some recent insights into the evolution of these important enzyme systems.

Molybdenum K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has been used to probe the structure of a Mo(V) species that has been suggested to be a catalytic intermediate in the reaction of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) reductase with the alternative substrate trimethylamine N-oxide (Bennet et al. Eur. J. Biochem. 1994, 255, 321-331; Cobb et al. J. Biol. Chem. 2005, 280, 11007-11017; Mtei, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2011, 133, 9672-9774). The oxidized Mo(VI) state of DMSO reductase has previously been structurally characterized as being six coordinate, with four sulfurs from pyranopterin dithiolene molybdenum cofactors, a terminal oxygen ligand, and an additional oxygen coordination from a serine residue. We find the most plausible structure for the Mo(V) active site is a five-coordinate species with four sulfur donors from the two pyranopterin dithiolene ligands, with an average Mo-S bond-length of 2.35 Å, plus a single oxygen donor at 1.99 Å, very likely from an Mo-OH ligand. Our results thus suggest that the oxygen of the serine residue has dissociated from the metal ion, suggesting hitherto unsuspected flexibility of the active site, and calling into question whether this putative intermediate is catalytically relevant. The relevance to previous Mo(V) electron paramagnetic resonance and other spectroscopic studies on DMSO reductase is discussed. XAS of an extensively studied Mo(V) form of Rhodobacter sphaeroides DMSO reductase (the high-g split species) shows that previously suggested structures for the active site are likely incorrect.

Valuable information on the active sites of molybdenum enzymes has been provided from both Mo(V) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). One of three major categories of Mo(V) EPR signals from the molybdenum enzyme sulfite oxidase is the low-pH signal, which forms in the presence of chloride. Two alternative structures for this species have been proposed, one in which the chloride is coordinated directly to Mo and a second in which chloride is held in the arginine-rich basic pocket some 5 Å from Mo. Here we present an independent assessment of the structure of this species by using XAS of the analogous bromide and iodide complexes. We show that there is no evidence of direct Mo-I coordination, and that the data are consistent with a structure in which the halide is bound at ∼5 Å from Mo.

We report a structural characterization using X-ray absorption spectroscopy of the molybdenum site of Escherichia coli YedY, a novel oxidoreductase related to be the sulfite oxidase family of molybdenum enzymes. We find that the enzyme can exist in Mo(V) and Mo(IV) oxidation states but cannot be readily oxidized to the Mo(VI) form. Mo(V) YedY has molybdenum coordination similar to that of sulfite oxidase, with one Mo═O at 1.71 Å, three Mo-S at 2.39 Å, and one Mo-OH at 2.09 Å, which elongates to 2.20 Å upon reduction to Mo(IV), indicating Mo-OH(2) coordination. The Mo(V) enzyme also possesses a long Mo-O coordination at 2.64 Å, which may be due to oxygen coordination by Asn-45 O(δ), with Mo-O(δ) approximately trans to the Mo═O group. A comparison with sulfite oxidase indicates that YedY possesses a much more uniform Mo-S coordination, with a maximum permitted deviation of less than 0.05 Å. Our results indicate that the YedY active site shows considerable similarity to but also important differences from that of reduced forms of sulfite oxidase.