The [Fe]-hydrogenase is an ideal system for studying the electronic properties of the low spin iron site that is common to the catalytic centres of all hydrogenases. Because they have no auxiliary iron-sulfur clusters and possess a cofactor containing a single iron centre, the [Fe]-hydrogenases are well suited for spectroscopic analysis of those factors required for the activation of molecular hydrogen. Specifically, in this study we shed light on the electronic and molecular structure of the iron centre by XAS analysis of [Fe]-hydrogenase from Methanocaldococcus jannashii and five model complexes (Fe(ethanedithiolate)-(CO)2(PMe3)2, [K(18-crown-6)]2[Fe(CN)2(CO)3], K[Fe(CN)(CO)4], K3[Fe(iii)(CN)6], K4[Fe(ii)(CN)6]). The different electron donors have a strong influence on the iron absorption K-edge energy position, which is frequently used to determine the metal oxidation state. Our results demonstrate that the K-edges of Fe(ii) complexes, achieved with low-spin ferrous thiolates, are consistent with a ferrous centre in the [Fe]-hydrogenase from Methanocaldococcus jannashii. The metal geometry also strongly influences the XANES and thus the electronic structure. Using in silico simulation, we were able to reproduce the main features of the XANES spectra and describe the effects of individual donor contributions on the spectra. Thereby, we reveal the essential role of an unusual carbon donor coming from an acyl group of the cofactor in the determination of the electronic structure required for the activity of the enzyme.

Phosphine-modified thioester derivatives are shown to serve as efficient precursors to phosphine-stabilized ferrous acyl thiolato carbonyls via the reaction of phosphine thioesters and sources of Fe(0). The reaction generates both Fe(SPh)(Ph2PC6H4CO)(CO)3 (1) and the diferrous diacyl Fe2(SPh)2(CO)3(Ph2PC6H4CO)2, which carbonylates to give 1. For the extremely bulky arylthioester Ph2PC6H4C(O)SC6H4-2,6-(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)2, oxidative addition is arrested and the Fe(0) adduct of the phosphine is obtained. Complex 1 reacts with cyanide to give Et4N[Fe(SPh)(Ph2PC6H4CO)(CN)(CO)2] (Et4N[2]). 13C and 31P NMR spectra indicate that substitution is stereospecific and cis to P. The IR spectrum of [2]− in CH2Cl2 solution very closely matches that for HmdCN. XANES and EXAFS measurements also indicate close structural and electronic similarity of Et4N[2] to the active site of wild-type Hmd. Complex 1 also stereospecifically forms a derivative with TsCH2NC, but the adduct is more labile than Et4N[2]. Tricarbonyl 1 was found to reversibly protonate to give a thermally labile derivative, IR measurements of which indicate that the acyl and thiolate ligands are probably not protonated in Hmd.

No abstract

No abstract

UreF is a protein that plays a role in the in vivo urease activation as a chaperone involved in the insertion of two Ni(2+) ions in the apo-urease active site. The molecular details of this process are unknown. In the absence of any molecular information on the UreF protein class, and as a step toward the comprehension of the relationships between UreF function and structure, we applied a structural modeling approach to infer useful biochemical knowledge on Bacillus pasteurii UreF (BpUreF). Similarity searches and multiple alignment of UreF protein sequences indicated that this class of proteins has a low homology with proteins of known structure. Fold recognition methods were therefore used to identify useful protein structural templates to model the structure of BpUreF. In particular, the templates belong to the class of GTPase-activating proteins. Modeling of BpUreF based on these templates was performed using the program MODELLER. The structure validation yielded good statistics, indicating that the model is plausible. This result suggests a role for UreF in urease active site biosynthesis as a regulator of the activity of UreG, a small G protein involved in the in vivo apo-urease activation process and established to catalyze GTP hydrolysis.