Dehaloperoxidase (DHP), the oxygen transport hemoglobin from the terebellid polychaete Amphitrite ornata, is the first globin identified to possess a biologically relevant peroxidase activity. DHP has been shown to oxidize trihalophenols to dihaloquinones in a dehalogenation reaction that uses hydrogen peroxide as a substrate. Herein, we demonstrate that the first detectable intermediate following the addition of hydrogen peroxide to ferric DHP contains both a ferryl heme and a tyrosyl radical, analogous to Compound ES of cytochrome c peroxidase. Furthermore, we provide a detailed kinetic description for the reaction of preformed DHP Compound ES with the substrate 2,4,6-trichlorophenol and demonstrate the catalytic competency of this intermediate in generating the product 2,4-dichloroquinone. Using rapid-freeze-quench electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, we detected a g approximately 2.0058 signal confirming the presence of a protein radical in DHP Compound ES. In the absence of substrate, DHP Compound ES evolves to a new species, Compound RH, which is functionally unique to dehaloperoxidase. We propose that this intermediate plays a protective role against heme bleaching. While unreactive toward further oxidation, Compound RH can be reduced and subsequently bind dioxygen, generating oxyferrous DHP, which may represent the catalytic link between peroxidase and oxygen transport activities in this bifunctional protein.

Background:The catalytically active species in dehaloperoxidase (DHP) contains both a ferryl heme and a tyrosyl radical. Results: Radicals were shown to form on three tyrosines (Tyr-28, Tyr-34 and Tyr-38) in DHP. Conclusion: Mutants that lacked tyrosines showed increases in the rates of both substrate oxidation and heme bleaching. Significance: Tyrosyl radical formation is an evolutionary adaptation to protect the enzyme from irreversibly oxidizing itself.

The distal histidine mutations of dehaloperoxidase-hemoglobin A (DHP A) to aspartate (H55D) and asparagine (H55N) have been prepared to study the role played by the distal histidine in both activation and protection against oxidation by radicals in heme proteins. The H55D and H55N mutants of DHP A have ~6-fold and ~11-fold lower peroxidase activities than wild type enzyme toward the oxidation of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol (TCP) to yield 2,6-dichloroquinone (DCQ) in the presence of H(2)O(2). The origin of the lower rate constants may be the solvent-exposed conformations of distal D55 and N55, which would have the dual effect of destabilizing the binding of H(2)O(2) to the heme iron, and of removing the acid-base catalyst necessary for the heterolytic O-O bond cleavage of heme-bound H(2)O(2) (i.e., compound 0). The partial peroxidase activity of H55D can be explained if one considers that there are two conformations of the distal aspartate (open and closed) by analogy with the distal histidine. We hypothesize that the distal aspartate has an active conformation in the distal pocket (closed). Although the open form is observed in the low-temperature X-ray crystal structure of ferric H55D, the closed form is observed in the FTIR spectrum of the carbonmonoxy form of the H55D mutant. Consistent with this model, the H55D mutant also shows inhibition of TCP oxidation by 4-bromophenol (4-BP). Consistent with the protection hypothesis, compound ES, the tyrosyl radical-containing ferryl intermediate observed in WT DHP A, was not observed in H55D.

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Protein regions which are intrinsically disordered, exist as an ensemble of rapidly interconverting structures. Cooling proteins to cryogenic temperatures for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR studies suspends most of the motions, resulting in peaks that are broad but not featureless. To demonstrate that detailed conformational restraints can be retrieved from the peak shapes of frozen proteins alone, we developed and used a simulation framework to assign peak features to conformers in the ensemble. We validated our simulations by comparing them to spectra of α‐synuclein acquired under different experimental conditions. Our assignments of peaks to discrete dihedral angle populations suggest that structural constraints are attainable under cryogenic conditions. The ability to infer ensemble populations from peak shapes has important implications for DNP MAS NMR studies of proteins with regions of disorder in living cells because chemical shifts are the most accessible measured parameter.