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Increasing atmospheric concentration of N 2 O has been a concern, as it is a potent greenhouse gas and promotes ozone layer destruction. In the N-cycle, release of N 2 O is boosted upon a drop of pH in the environment. Here, Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus was grown in batch mode in the presence of nitrate, to study the effect of pH in the denitrification pathway by gene expression profiling, quantification of nitrate and nitrite, and evaluating the ability of whole cells to reduce NO and N 2 O. At pH 6.5, accumulation of nitrite in the medium occurs and the cells were unable to reduce N 2 O. In addition, the biochemical properties of N 2 O reductase isolated from cells grown at pH 6.5, 7.5 and 8.5 were compared for the first time. The amount of this enzyme at acidic pH was lower than that at pH 7.5 and 8.5, pinpointing to a post-transcriptional regulation, though pH did not affect gene expression of N 2 O reductase accessory genes. N 2 O reductase isolated from cells grown at pH 6.5 has its catalytic center mainly as CuZ(4Cu1S), while that from cells grown at pH 7.5 or 8.5 has it as CuZ(4Cu2S). This study evidences that an in vivo secondary level of regulation is required to maintain N 2 O reductase in an active state.

Reduction of N 2 O to N 2 is catalysed by nitrous oxide reductase in the last step of the denitrification pathway. This multicopper enzyme has an electron transferring centre, CuA, and a tetranuclear copper-sulfide catalytic centre, "CuZ", which exists as CuZ*(4Cu1S) or CuZ(4Cu2S). The redox behaviour of these metal centres in Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus nitrous oxide reductase was investigated by potentiometry and for the first time by direct electrochemistry. The reduction potential of CuA and CuZ(4Cu2S) was estimated by potentiometry to be +275 ± 5 mV and +65 ± 5 mV vs SHE, respectively, at pH 7.6. A proton-coupled electron transfer mechanism governs CuZ(4Cu2S) reduction potential, due to the protonation/deprotonation of Lys397 with a pK ox of 6.0 ± 0.1 and a pK red of 9.2 ± 0.1. The reduction potential of CuA, in enzyme samples with CuZ*(4Cu1S), is controlled by protonation of the coordinating histidine residues in a two-proton coupled electron transfer process. In the cyclic voltammograms, two redox pairs were identified corresponding to CuA and CuZ(4Cu2S), with no additional signals being detected that could be attributed to CuZ*(4Cu1S). However, an enhanced cathodic signal for the activated enzyme was observed under turnover conditions, which is explained by the binding of nitrous oxide to CuZ 0 (4Cu1S), an intermediate species in the catalytic cycle., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The reduction of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide requires a catalyst to overcome the large activation energy barrier of this reaction. Its biological decomposition to the inert dinitrogen can be accomplished by denitrifiers through nitrous oxide reductase, the enzyme that catalyzes the last step of the denitrification, a pathway of the biogeochemical nitrogen cycle. Nitrous oxide reductase is a multicopper enzyme containing a mixed valence CuA center that can accept electrons from small electron shuttle proteins, triggering electron flow to the catalytic sulfide-bridged tetranuclear copper "CuZ center". This enzyme has been isolated with its catalytic center in two forms, CuZ*(4Cu1S) and CuZ(4Cu2S), proven to be spectroscopic and structurally different. In the last decades, it has been a challenge to characterize the properties of this complex enzyme, due to the different oxidation states observed for each of its centers and the heterogeneity of its preparations. The substrate binding site in those two "CuZ center" forms and which is the active form of the enzyme is still a matter of debate. However, in the last years the application of different spectroscopies, together with theoretical calculations have been useful in answering these questions and in identifying intermediate species of the catalytic cycle. An overview of the spectroscopic, kinetics and structural properties of the two forms of the catalytic "CuZ center" is given here, together with the current knowledge on nitrous oxide reduction mechanism by nitrous oxide reductase and its intermediate species., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Spectroscopic methods and density functional theory (DFT) calculations are used to determine the geometric and electronic structure of Cu Z °, an intermediate form of the Cu 4 S active site of nitrous oxide reductase (N 2 OR) that is observed in single turnover of fully reduced N 2 OR with N 2 O. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), absorption, and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) spectroscopies show that Cu Z ° is a 1-hole (i.e., 3Cu I Cu II ) state with spin density delocalized evenly over Cu I and Cu IV . Resonance Raman spectroscopy shows two Cu-S vibrations at 425 and 413 cm -1 , the latter with a -3 cm -1 O 18 solvent isotope shift. DFT calculations correlated to these spectral features show that Cu Z ° has a terminal hydroxide ligand coordinated to Cu IV , stabilized by a hydrogen bond to a nearby lysine residue. Cu Z ° can be reduced via electron transfer from Cu A using a physiologically relevant reductant. We obtain a lower limit on the rate of this intramolecular electron transfer (IET) that is >10 4 faster than the unobserved IET in the resting state, showing that Cu Z ° is the catalytically relevant oxidized form of N 2 OR. Terminal hydroxide coordination to Cu IV in the Cu Z ° intermediate yields insight into the nature of N 2 O binding and reduction, specifying a molecular mechanism in which N 2 O coordinates in a μ-1,3 fashion to the fully reduced state, with hydrogen bonding from Lys397, and two electrons are transferred from the fully reduced μ 4 S 2- bridged tetranuclear copper cluster to N 2 O via a single Cu atom to accomplish N-O bond cleavage.

Molybdenum is found in the active site of enzymes usually coordinated by one or two pyranopterin molecules. Here, we mimic an enzyme with a mononuclear molybdenum-bis pyranopterin center by incorporating molybdenum in rubredoxin. In the molybdenum-substituted rubredoxin, the metal ion is coordinated by four sulfurs from conserved cysteine residues of the apo-rubredoxin and two other exogenous ligands, oxygen and thiol, forming a Mo((VI))-(S-Cys)4(O)(X) complex, where X represents -OH or -SR. The rubredoxin molybdenum center is stabilized in a Mo(VI) oxidation state, but can be reduced to Mo(IV) via Mo(V) by dithionite, being a suitable model for the spectroscopic properties of resting and reduced forms of molybdenum-bis pyranopterin-containing enzymes. Preliminary experiments indicate that the molybdenum site built in rubredoxin can promote oxo transfer reactions, as exemplified with the oxidation of arsenite to arsenate.