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Chemical studies on the mechanism of the action of thermolysin implicate a histidyl residue as essential for catalysis and reveal the existence of another residue which can undergo modification with a concomitant large increase in the activity of the enzyme towards a variety of substrates.

Cryospectrokinetic studies provide concurrent structural, kinetic, and chemical data on short-lived intermediates in the course of the interactions of enzymes with their substrates and of other, similar pairs of biomolecules. Subzero temperatures extend the lifetimes of these intermediates and, combined with rapid-mixing and rapid-scanning instrumentation, allow simultaneous measurement of both their physical-chemical and kinetic characteristics. For carboxypeptidase A, the spectra of a chromophoric, enzymatically functional cobalt atom at the active site signal the structure of the coordination complex during catalysis, while radiationless energy transfer between enzyme tryptophans and the fluorescent dansyl blocking group of rapidly hydrolyzed peptide and ester substrates provides the basis for measurement of the rates of formation and breakdown of intermediates. Subzero radiationless energy transfer kinetic studies of the zinc and cobalt enzymes disclose two intermediates in the hydrolysis of both peptides and esters and furnish all the rate and equilibrium constants for the reaction scheme E + S in equilibrium ES1 in equilibrium ES2----E + P. The chemical and kinetic data indicate that neither of these is an acylenzyme intermediate. Both absorption and EPR spectra of the ES2 reaction intermediates consistently demonstrate the formation of transient metal complexes, differences between the effects induced by peptides and esters, and strong similarities between those induced by all peptides on the one hand and all esters on the other. The marked alterations of the cobalt spectra likely reflect the coordination of a substrate carboxyl and/or carbonyl group to the metal at a critical step in the course of catalysis. The cryospectrokinetic approach developed here in the mechanistic study of this metalloenzyme is applicable to the examination of transients of biochemical reactions in general. It will allow molecular characterization of previously elusive intermediates and greatly magnify the range of mechanistic questions that can be answered.

A group of active-site metal coordinating inhibitors of zinc proteases (carboxypeptidase A, thermolysin, Bacillus cereus neutral protease, and angiotensin-converting enzyme) have been synthesized and their properties investigated. Their general structures are R-SH and R-NH-PO2(O phi)H, where-S- or -O- serve as metal ligands and R refers to an amino acid or peptide group designed to interact with substrate recognition sites. These inhibitors can be extremely potent; thus, N-(2-mercaptoacetyl)-D-phenylalanine, e.g., inhibits carboxypeptidase A with a Kiapp of 2.2 x 10(-7) M. The spectral response of cobalt(II)-substituted thermolysin or carboxypeptidase A to the sulfur-containing inhibitors signals the direct interaction of the mercaptan with the metal. An S leads to Co(II) charge transfer band is generated near 340 nm and is detected by absorption, circular dichroism, and magnetic circular dichroism. The cobalt(II) spectra indicate both inner sphere coordination with sulfur and 4-coordination in the enzyme-inhibitor complex. Thus, the metal undergoes a simple substitution reaction, the inhibitor most likely displacing water at the fourth coordination site.

The visible fluorescence of terbium(III) when bound to a calcium binding site of thermolysin is greatly enhanced with an excitation maximum at 280 nm but substitution of cobalt(II) for zinc at the active site decreases the intensity by 89.5%. Treatment with N-bromosuccinimide quenches enzyme tryptophan and Tb(III) fluorescence to a similar extent and suggests the operation of tryptophan vector Tb(III) vector Co(II) energy relay system in the enzyme. Dipoledipole radiationless energy transfer between the Tb(III) donor and the Co(II) acceptor can account for this quenching. The inherent characteristics of the metal pair limits the value of the orientation factor, K2, of the Förster equation, thereby reducing uncertainties in distance measurements by energy transfer compared with other systems. A quantum yield of 0.51 yields a value of R0, the distance for 50% energy transfer, of 19.6 A, and a distance, R, between Tb(III) and Co(II) of 13.7 A, a value identical to that measured for the distance between the active site zinc atom and calcium atom number 1 by x-ray analysis in native thermolysin crystals. The limits of confidence of this measurement are discussed. Energy transfer between two different metal atom sites of a protein provides a new class of probes to measure intramolecular distances of biological macromolecules in solution.

Class III (chi) is the only alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) in human, equine, bovine, simian, canine, and rodent brain and is the first to be identified, purified, and characterized from the brain of humans or other vertebrates. Like the corresponding isozymes from human placenta and liver, the chi-ADH isozymes purified from mammalian brain are neither inhibited by nor do they bind to immobilized pyrazole, and they oxidize ethanol only very poorly (Km greater than 2.5 M). Indeed, it would be incorrect to classify them as "ethanol dehydrogenases." They contain 4 g.atom of zinc/mol, bind 2 moles of NAD, and readily oxidize long-chain aliphatic and aromatic primary alcohols. These findings appear to exclude the possibilities that ADH protects the brain of these vertebrates against ethanol or its metabolic products and that the brain can generate energy for cerebral function from ADH-monitored ethanol metabolism. Thus chi-ADH must serve a totally different but as yet unknown role. The failure to detect any ethanol dehydrogenase activity in brain creates an intellectual dilemma only if it is assumed that such an enzyme has evolved and developed as a protective mechanism for ethanol detoxification in that organ, as has been assumed. Tissue and substrate specificities of ADH isozymes are likely to give new insight regarding their physiological roles.

To obtain specified mechanical properties in high-strength steel plates, vanadium is often used as a grainrefiner and precipitation-strengthener. As excess microalloying is usually considered to impair the toughness of the heat-affected zone, an investigation with the aid of a weld cycle simulator was made. Eight steels of composition 0·15% C and 1·30% Mn with up to 0·45% V were studied. Submerged arc, electrogas, and hand welding were simulated in test-pieces from which Charpy V-notch specimens were prepared and tested for ductility and hardness. From these tests and metallography, including thin-foil electron microscopy, the following conclusions can be drawn. Vanadium in excess of 0·10% embrittles the heat-affected zone at high heat inputs. The transition, temperature increases with vanadium content in a semi-parabolic manner. At lower weld energies, a V content > 0·25% is detrimental to toughness. The ductility loss can be attributed to hardening by vanadium nitrides, presumably in the form of coherent precipitates. Higher welding energies give higher ductility losses, which would be due to a coarser or more abundant precipitation. Without tempering, the nitrides are, as a rule, too small to be observed even with the aid of electron microscopy. After tempering, three types of precipitates can be observed in the electron microscope—on dislocations, in rows, and homogeneously distributed. Vanadium in the ranges studied does not significantly affect the optical metallographic structure of the weld heat-affected zone.