M. Lombard et al., Superoxide reductase from Desulfoarculus baarsii: Reaction mechanism and role of glutamate 47 and lysine 48 in catalysis, BIOCHEM, 40(16), 2001, pp. 5032-5040
Superoxide reductase (SOR) is a small metalloenzyme that catalyzes reductio
n of O-2(.-) to H2O2 and thus provides an antioxidant mechanism against sup
eroxide radicals. Its active site contains an unusual mononuclear ferrous c
enter, which is very efficient during electron transfer to O-2(.-) [Lombard
, M., Fontecave, M., Touati, D., and Niviere, V. (2000) J. Biol. Chem. 275,
115-121]. The reaction of the enzyme from Desulfoarculus baarsii with supe
roxide was studied by pulse radiolysis methods. The first step is an extrem
ely fast bimolecular reaction of superoxide reductase with superoxide, with
a rate constant of (1.1 +/- 0.3) x 10(9) M-1 s(-1). A first intermediate i
s formed which is converted to a second one at a much slower rate constant
of 500 +/- 50 s(-1). Decay of the second intermediate occurs with a rate co
nstant of 25 +/- 5 s(-1). These intermediates are suggested to be iron-supe
roxide and iron-peroxide species. Furthermore, the role of glutamate 47 and
lysine 48, which are the closest charged residues to the vacant sixth iron
coordination site, has been investigated by site-directed mutagenesis. Mut
ation of glutamate 47 into alanine has no effect on the rates of the reacti
on. On the contrary, mutation of lysine 48 into an isoleucine led to a 20-3
0-fold decrease of the rate constant of the bimolecular reaction, suggestin
g that lysine 48 plays an important role during guiding and binding of supe
roxide to the iron center Il. In addition, we report that expression of the
lysine 48 sor mutant gene hardly restored to a superoxide dismutase-defici
ent Escherichia coli mutant the ability to grow under aerobic conditions.