Adenosylcobalamin serves as a source of reactive free radicals that are generated by homolytic scission of the coenzyme’s cobalt-carbon bond. AdoCbl-dependent enzymes accelerate AdoCbl homolysis by ~1012-fold, but the mechanism by which this is accomplished remains unclear. We have combined experimental and computational approaches to gain molecular-level insight into this process for glutamate mutase. Two residues, glutamate-330 and lysine-326, form hydrogen bonds with the adenosyl group of the coenzyme. A series of mutations were introduced at these positions that impair the enzyme’s ability to catalyze coenzyme homolysis and tritium exchange with the substrate by 2 – 4 orders of magnitude. These mutations, together with the wild-type enzyme, were also characterized in silico by molecular dynamics simulations of the enzyme:AdoCbl:substrate with AdoCbl modeled in either the associated (Co-C bond formed) or the dissociated (adenosyl radical + CblII) state. The simulations reveal that the number of hydrogen bonds between the adenosyl group and the protein side-chains increases in the homolytically-dissociated state, with respect to the associated state, for both the wild-type and mutant enzymes. The mutations also cause a progressive increase in the mean distance between the 5′-carbon of the adenosyl radical and the abstractable hydrogen of the substrate. Interestingly, the distance between the 5′-carbon and substrate hydrogen, determined computationally, was found to inversely correlate with the logk for tritium exchange (r = 0.93) determined experimentally. Taken together, these results point to a dual role for these residues: they both stabilize the homolytic state through electrostatic interactions between the protein and the dissociated coenzyme, and correctly position the adenosyl radical to facilitate hydrogen abstraction from the substrate.
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