Superoxide dismutases rely on protein structural elements to adjust the redox potential of the metallocenter to an optimum value near 300 mV (vs. NHE), to provide a source of protons for catalysis, and to control the access of anions to the active site. These aspects of the catalytic mechanism are examined herein for recombinant preparations of the nickel-dependent SOD (NiSOD) from Streptomyces coelicolor, and for a series of mutants that affect a key tyrosine residue, Tyr9 (Y9F-, Y62F-, Y9FY62F- and D3A-NiSOD). Structural aspects of the nickel sites are examined by a combination of EPR and x-ray absorption spectroscopies, and by single crystal x-ray diffraction at ~ 1.9 Å resolution in the case of Y9F- and D3A-NiSODs. The functional effects of the mutations are examined by kinetic studies employing pulse radiolytic generation of O2− and by redox titrations. These studies reveal that although the structure of the nickel center in NiSOD is unique, the ligand environment is designed to optimize the redox potential at 290 mV and results in the oxidation of 50% of the nickel centers in the oxidized hexamer. Kinetic investigations show that all of the mutant proteins have considerable activity. In the case of Y9F-NiSOD, the enzyme shows saturation behavior that is not observed in WT-NiSOD and suggests that release of peroxide is inhibited. The crystal structure of Y9F-NiSOD reveals an anion binding site that is occupied by either Cl− or Br− and is located close to, but not within bonding distance of the nickel center. The structure of D3A-NiSOD reveals that in addition to affecting the interaction between subunits, this mutation repositions Y9 and leads to altered chemistry with peroxide. Comparisons with Mn(SOD) and Fe(SOD) reveal that although different strategies are employed to adjust the redox potential and supply of protons, NiSOD has evolved a similar strategy to control the access of anions to the active site.

Nickel superoxide dismutase (NiSOD) is unique among the family of SOD enzymes in that it coordinates cysteine residues (Cys2 and Cys6) to the redox-active metal center and exhibits a hexameric quaternary structure. To assess the role of the Cys residues with respect to the activity of NiSOD, mutations of Cys2 and Cys6 to serine (C2S-, C6S-, and C2S/C6S-NiSOD) were carried out. The resulting mutants do not catalyze the disproportionation of superoxide, but retain the hexameric structure found for wild-type (WT) NiSOD and bind Ni(II) ions in a 1:1 stoichiometry. X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) studies of the Cys mutants reveal that the nickel active-site structure for each mutant resembles that of C2S/C6S-NiSOD and demonstrate that mutation of either Cys2 or Cys6 inhibits coordination of the remaining Cys residue. Mutation of one or both Cys residue(s) in NiSOD induces the conversion of the low-spin Ni(II) site in the native enzyme to a high-spin Ni(II) center in the mutants. This result that indicates that coordination of both Cys residues is required to generate the native low-spin configurations and maintain catalytic activity. Analysis of the quaternary structure of the cysteine mutants by differential scanning calorimetry, mass spectrometry, and size-exclusion chromatography reveal that the cysteine ligands, particularly Cys2, are also important for stabilizing the hexameric quaternary structure of the native enzyme.

Crystal structures of nickel-dependent superoxide dismutases (NiSODs) reveal the presence of a H-bonding network formed between the N-H of the apical imidazole ligand from His1 and the Glu17 carboxylate from a neighboring subunit in the hexameric enzyme. This interaction is supported by another intra-subunit H-bond between Glu17 and Arg47. In this study, four mutant NiSOD proteins were produced to experimentally evaluate the roles of this H-bonding network, and compare the results with prior predictions from DFT calculations. H1A-NiSOD, which lacks the apical ligand entirely, was crystallographically characterized and reveals that in the absence of the Glu17-His1 H-bond, the active site is disordered. Subsequent characterization using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) shows that Ni(II) is bound in the expected N2S2 planar coordination site. Despite these structural perturbations, the H1A-NiSOD variant is an active catalyst with 4% of WT-NiSOD activity. Three other mutations were designed to preserve the apical imidazole ligand, but perturb the H-bonding network: R47A-NiSOD, lacks the intra-molecular H-bonding interaction, E17R/R47A-NiSOD, which retains the intra-molecular H-bond, but lacks the inter-molecular Glu17-His1 H-bond, and E17A/R47A-NiSOD, which lacks both H-bonding interactions. These variants were characterized by a combination of techniques including XAS characterization of the nickel site structure, kinetic studies employing pulse-radiolytic production of superoxide, and EPR and chemical probes of the redox activity. The results indicate that in addition to the roles in redox tuning suggested by the computational models, the Glu17-His1 H-bond plays an important structural role in the formation of the Ni-hook motif that is a critical feature of the active site.

Nickel-dependent superoxide dismutase (Ni-SOD) is a member of a class of metalloenzymes that protect aerobic organisms from the damaging superoxide radical (O 2 ·− ). A distinctive and fascinating feature of NiSOD is the presence of active-site nickel-thiolate interactions involving the Cys2 and Cys6 residues. Mutation of one or both Cys residues to Ser prevents catalysis of O 2 ·− , demonstrating that both residues are necessary to support proper enzymatic activity (Ryan et al., J Biol Inorg Chem, 2010). In this study, we have employed a combined spectroscopic and computational approach to characterize three Cys-to-Ser (Cys → Ser) mutants (C2S, C6S, and C2S/C6S NiSOD). Similar electronic absorption and magnetic circular dichroism spectra are observed for these mutants, indicating that they possess nearly identical active-site geometric and electronic structures. These spectroscopic data also reveal that the Ni 2+ ion in each mutant adopts a high-spin (S = 1) configuration, characteristic of a five-or six-coordinate ligand environment, as opposed to the low-spin (S = 0) configuration observed for the four-coordinate Ni 2+ center in the native enzyme. An analysis of the electronic absorption and magnetic circular dichroism data within the framework of density functional theory computations performed on a series of five-and six-coordinate C2S/C6S NiSOD models reveals that the active site of each Cys → Ser mutant possesses an essentially six-coordinate Ni 2+ center with a rather weak axial bonding interaction. Factors contributing to the lack of catalytic activity displayed by the Cys → Ser NiSOD mutants are explored.