Issue 20, 2021

The electronic structure of FeV-cofactor in vanadium-dependent nitrogenase

Abstract

The electronic structure of the active-site metal cofactor (FeV-cofactor) of resting-state V-dependent nitrogenase has been an open question, with earlier studies indicating that it exhibits a broad S = 3/2 EPR signal (Kramers state) having g values of ∼4.3 and 3.8, along with suggestions that it contains metal-ions with valencies [1V3+, 3Fe3+, 4Fe2+]. In the present work, genetic, biochemical, and spectroscopic approaches were combined to reveal that the EPR signals previously assigned to FeV-cofactor do not correlate with active VFe-protein, and thus cannot arise from the resting-state of catalytically relevant FeV-cofactor. It, instead, appears resting-state FeV-cofactor is either diamagnetic, S = 0, or non-Kramers, integer-spin (S = 1, 2 etc.). When VFe-protein is freeze-trapped during high-flux turnover with its natural electron-donating partner Fe protein, conditions which populate reduced states of the FeV-cofactor, a new rhombic S = 1/2 EPR signal from such a reduced state is observed, with g = [2.18, 2.12, 2.09] and showing well-defined 51V (I = 7/2) hyperfine splitting, aiso = 110 MHz. These findings indicate a different assignment for the electronic structure of the resting state of FeV-cofactor: S = 0 (or integer-spin non-Kramers state) with metal-ion valencies, [1V3+, 4Fe3+, 3Fe2+]. Our findings suggest that the V3+ does not change valency throughout the catalytic cycle.

Graphical abstract: The electronic structure of FeV-cofactor in vanadium-dependent nitrogenase

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
30 Nov. 2020
Accepted
26 Marts 2021
First published
29 Marts 2021
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 6913-6922

The electronic structure of FeV-cofactor in vanadium-dependent nitrogenase

Z. Yang, E. Jimenez-Vicente, H. Kallas, D. A. Lukoyanov, H. Yang, J. S. Martin del Campo, D. R. Dean, B. M. Hoffman and L. C. Seefeldt, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 6913 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06561G

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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