Three flavin derivatives modified at the 2-position of the flavin N-10 ribityl side chain were synthesized: arabinoflavin, 2-F-2-deoxyarabinoflavin, and 2-deoxyriboflavin. These were converted to the FAD level with FAD synthetase. Apoproteins of lipoamide dehydrogenase, glutathione reductase, and mercuric reductase, a family of flavoprotein oxidoreductases, were reconstituted with these flavins. Significant reduction of the catalytic activities was observed with the modified enzymes. During anaerobic reduction of the modified enzymes with substrate or dithiothreitol, decreased thermodynamic stability of the two-electron reduced enzyme forms (EH 2 ) and the accumulation of the fourelectron reduced forms (EH 4 ) noted. This effect was more pronounced in case of arabino-FAD-reconstituted enzymes than with the other two. It was found that NAD ؉ binding influences the interaction between the flavin and the reduced disulfide in the 2-F-arabino-FAD-lipoamide dehydrogenase, presumably by altering the relative oxidation-reduction potentials. Chemical modification of the isoalloxazine ring of flavins and incorporation of modified flavin derivatives into apoproteins has proven to be a powerful tool in understanding the relationship between protein structure and catalysis in flavoenzymes (1). The N-10 ribityl side chain of flavins has generally been considered as only a binding anchor with no positive role in catalysis. However, the x-ray crystal structures of various flavoproteins such as glutathione reductase (2, 3), acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (4, 5), lipoamide dehydrogenase (6), and old yellow enzyme (7) showed the involvement of ribityl hydroxyls in hydrogen bonds that could regulate catalytically important amino acid residues at the active sites. From the three-dimensional structure of medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, two hydrogen bridges pointing toward the thioester carbonyl were identified as activating the substrate (4, 5). One of them involves the flavin 2Ј-OH group and the other Glu-376. Recent studies of Ghisla et al. (8) with 2Ј-deoxy-FAD-reconstituted medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase confirmed the crystal structure findings and for the first time demonstrated a role for the ribityl side chain in catalysis. Studies with 2Ј-F-arabino-FAD-reconstituted mercuric reductase (9, 39) showed that the two-electron reduced form in which the flavin remains oxidized and the active site disulfide reduced is destabilized by this modification and complete flavin reduction was observed. The crystal structures of glutathione reductase and lipoamide dehydrogenase (3, 6) have shown that the 2Ј-hydroxyl group is involved in an important hydrogen bond network in the oxidized forms of the proteins. The 2Ј-and 4Ј-hydroxyls and an adenine phosphate oxygen atom make two intramolecular hydrogen bonds that could play a significant role in determining the conformation of the bound prosthetic group (Fig. 1A). In the reduced form, the distance between 2Ј-OH and the active site Cys-63 decreases from 3.9 to 3.4 Å. Also Sol-601 now donates...