The oxidation of water to dioxygen is catalyzed within photosystem II (PSII) by a Mn 4 Ca cluster, the structure of which remains elusive. Polarized extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements on PSII single crystals constrain the Mn 4 Ca cluster geometry to a set of three similar high-resolution structures. Combining polarized EXAFS and x-ray diffraction data, the cluster was placed within PSII, taking into account the overall trend of the electron density of the metal site and the putative ligands. The structure of the cluster from the present study is unlike either the 3.0 or 3.5 angstrom-resolution x-ray structures or other previously proposed models.Oxygen, which makes up about 20% of Earth's atmosphere, comes mostly from photosynthesis that occurs in cyanobacteria, green algae, and higher plants (1). These organisms have within photosystem II (PSII) an oxygen-evolving complex (OEC), in which the energy of sunlight is used to oxidize water to molecular oxygen. The heart of the OEC is a cluster of four Mn atoms and one Ca atom (Mn 4 Ca) connected by mono-μ-oxo, di-μ-oxo, and/or hydroxo bridges. The specific protein environment and one chloride ion are also essential for the water-splitting activity (1). During the oxidation of water, the OEC cycles through five different oxidation states, which are known as S i states (where i ranges from 0 to 4), that couple the one-electron photochemistry of the PSII reaction center with the fourelectron chemistry of water oxidation (2).The structure of the Mn 4 Ca cluster and its role in the mechanism of water oxidation have been investigated with the use of spectroscopic methods (1), especially electron ‡ To whom correspondence should be addressed. messinger@mpi-muelheim. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript paramagnetic resonance and electron nuclear double-resonance spectroscopy (3-9), x-ray spectroscopy (10), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy (11). In addition, recent x-ray diffraction (XRD) studies of single crystals of PSII provide critical information about its structure at 3.8 to 3.0 Å resolution (12-16). However, even XRD data of the highest resolution presently available are insufficient to accurately determine the positions of Mn, Ca, and the bridging and terminal ligands. This is reflected by the differences in the placement of the metal ions and putative ligands in the 3.0 (16) and 3.5 Å (14) structures. Furthermore, at the x-ray dose and temperature used in the XRD studies, the geometry of the Mn 4 Ca cluster is disrupted, initiated by the rapid reduction of Mn(III) and Mn(IV) present in the dark-stable S 1 state to Mn(II), as shown by Mn x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) studies and Mn x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) studies of PSII single crystals (17).EXAFS experiments with PSII require a substantially lower x-ray dose than XRD measurements (17), and the onset of radiation damage can be precisely determined and controlled by monitoring the Mn K-edge positio...

X-ray absorption spectroscopy was used to measure the damage caused by exposure to x-rays to the Mn4Ca active site in single crystals of photosystem II as a function of dose and energy of x-rays, temperature, and time. These studies reveal that the conditions used for structure determination by x-ray crystallography cause serious damage specifically to the metal-site structure. The x-ray absorption spectra show that the structure changes from one that is characteristic of a high-valent Mn4(III2,IV2) oxo-bridged Mn4Ca cluster to that of Mn(II) in aqueous solution. This damage to the metal site occurs at a dose that is more than one order of magnitude lower than the dose that results in loss of diffractivity and is commonly considered safe for protein crystallography. These results establish quantitative x-ray dose parameters that are applicable to redox-active metalloproteins. This case study shows that a careful evaluation of the structural intactness of the active site(s) by spectroscopic techniques can validate structures derived from crystallography and that it can be a valuable complementary method before structure-function correlations of metalloproteins can be made on the basis of high-resolution x-ray crystal structures.manganese ͉ oxygen evolution ͉ water oxidation ͉ x-ray spectroscopy

Photosynthesis, a process catalysed by plants, algae and cyanobacteria converts sunlight to energy thus sustaining all higher life on Earth. Two large membrane protein complexes, photosystem I and II (PSI and PSII), act in series to catalyse the light-driven reactions in photosynthesis. PSII catalyses the light-driven water splitting process, which maintains the Earth’s oxygenic atmosphere1. In this process, the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) of PSII cycles through five states, S0 to S4, in which four electrons are sequentially extracted from the OEC in four light-driven charge-separation events. Here we describe time resolved experiments on PSII nano/microcrystals from Thermosynechococcus elongatus performed with the recently developed2 technique of serial femtosecond crystallography. Structures have been determined from PSII in the dark S1 state and after double laser excitation (putative S3 state) at 5 and 5.5 Å resolution, respectively. The results provide evidence that PSII undergoes significant conformational changes at the electron acceptor side and at the Mn4CaO5 core of the OEC. These include an elongation of the metal cluster, accompanied by changes in the protein environment, which could allow for binding of the second substrate water molecule between the more distant protruding Mn (referred to as the ‘dangler’ Mn) and the Mn3CaOx cubane in the S2 to S3 transition, as predicted by spectroscopic and computational studies3,4. This work shows the great potential for time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography for investigation of catalytic processes in biomolecules.

Photosynthetic water oxidation, where water is oxidized to dioxygen, is a fundamental chemical reaction that sustains the biosphere. This reaction is catalyzed by a Mn4Ca complex in the photosystem II (PS II) oxygen-evolving complex (OEC): a multiprotein assembly embedded in the thylakoid membranes of green plants, cyanobacteria, and algae. The mechanism of photosynthetic water oxidation by the Mn4Ca cluster in photosystem II is the subject of much debate, although lacking structural characterization of the catalytic intermediates. Biosynthetically exchanged Ca/Sr-PS II preparations and x-ray spectroscopy, including extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), allowed us to monitor Mn-Mn and Ca(Sr)-Mn distances in the four intermediate S states, S0 through S3, of the catalytic cycle that couples the one-electron photochemistry occurring at the PS II reaction center with the four-electron water-oxidation chemistry taking place at the Mn4Ca(Sr) cluster. We have detected significant changes in the structure of the complex, especially in the Mn-Mn and Ca(Sr)-Mn distances, on the S2-to-S3 and S3-to-S0 transitions. These results implicate the involvement of at least one common bridging oxygen atom between the Mn-Mn and Mn-Ca(Sr) atoms in the O-O bond formation. Because PS II cannot advance beyond the S2 state in preparations that lack Ca(Sr), these results show that Ca(Sr) is one of the critical components in the mechanism of the enzyme. The results also show that Ca is not just a spectator atom involved in providing a structural framework, but is actively involved in the mechanism of water oxidation and represents a rare example of a catalytically active Ca cofactor. manganese enzyme ͉ oxygen evolution ͉ photosynthesis ͉ photosystem II ͉ x-ray spectroscopy

The biological generation of oxygen by the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II (PS II) is one of nature's most important reactions. The recent X-ray crystal structures, while limited by resolutions of 3.2-3.5 A, have located the electron density associated with the Mn4Ca cluster within the multiprotein PS II complex. Detailed structures critically depend on input from spectroscopic techniques, such as EXAFS and EPR/ENDOR, as the XRD resolution does not allow for accurate determination of the position of Mn/Ca or the bridging and terminal ligand atoms. The number and distances of Mn-Mn/Ca/ligand interactions determined from EXAFS provide important constraints for the structure of the Mn4Ca cluster. Here, we present data from a high-resolution EXAFS method using a novel multicrystal monochromator that show three short Mn-Mn distances between 2.7 and 2.8 A and, hence, the presence of three di-mu-oxo-bridged units in the Mn4Ca cluster. This result imposes clear limitations on the proposed structures based on spectroscopic and diffraction data and provides input for refining such structures.

Redox-inactive metal ions play pivotal roles in regulating the reactivities of high-valent metal-oxo species in a variety of enzymatic and chemical reactions. A mononuclear non-heme Mn(IV)-oxo complex bearing a pentadentate N5 ligand has been synthesized and used in the synthesis of a Mn(IV)-oxo complex binding scandium ions. The Mn(IV)-oxo complexes were characterized with various spectroscopic methods. The reactivities of the Mn(IV)-oxo complex are markedly influenced by binding of Sc(3+) ions in oxidation reactions, such as a ~2200-fold increase in the rate of oxidation of thioanisole (i.e., oxygen atom transfer) but a ~180-fold decrease in the rate of C-H bond activation of 1,4-cyclohexadiene (i.e., hydrogen atom transfer). The present results provide the first example of a non-heme Mn(IV)-oxo complex binding redox-inactive metal ions that shows a contrasting effect of the redox-inactive metal ions on the reactivities of metal-oxo species in the oxygen atom transfer and hydrogen atom transfer reactions.

A mononuclear non-heme manganese(IV)-oxo complex has been synthesized and characterized using various spectroscopic methods. The Mn(IV)-oxo complex shows high reactivity in oxidation reactions, such as C-H bond activation, oxidations of olefins, alcohols, sulfides, and aromatic compounds, and N-dealkylation. In C-H bond activation, the Mn(IV)-oxo complex can activate C-H bonds as strong as those in cyclohexane. It is proposed that C-H bond activation by the non-heme Mn(IV)-oxo complex does not occur via an oxygen-rebound mechanism. The electrophilic character of the non-heme Mn(IV)-oxo complex is demonstrated by a large negative ρ value of -4.4 in the oxidation of para-substituted thioanisoles.

We discuss a spectroscopic method to determine the character of chemical bonding and for the identification of metal ligands in coordination and bioinorganic chemistry. It is based on the analysis of satellite lines in x-ray emission spectra that arise from transitions between valence orbitals and the metal ion 1s level (valence-to-core XES). The spectra, in connection with calculations based on density functional theory (DFT), provide information that is complementary to other spectroscopic techniques, in particular x-ray absorption (XANES and EXAFS). The spectral shape is sensitive to protonation of ligands and allows ligands, which differ only slightly in atomic number (e.g. C, N, O...), to be distinguished . A theoretical discussion of the main spectral features is presented in terms of molecular orbitals for a series of Mn model systems: [Mn(H2O)6]2+, [Mn(H2O)5OH]+, [Mn(H2O)5NH2]+ and [Mn(H2O)5NH3]2+. An application of the method, with comparison between theory and experiment, is presented for solvated Mn2+ ion in water and three Mn coordination complexes, namely [LMn(acac)N3]BPh4, [LMn(B2O3Ph2)(ClO4)] and [LMn(acac)N]BPh4 where L represents 1,4,7-trimethyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane, acac stands for the 2,4-pentanedionate anion and B2O3Ph2 represents the 1,3-diphenyl-1,3-dibora-2-oxapropane-1,3-diolato dianion.