Project description:Protein film electrochemistry has been used to investigate reactions of highly active nickel-containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenases (CODHs). When attached to a pyrolytic graphite electrode, these enzymes behave as reversible electrocatalysts, displaying CO2 reduction or CO oxidation at minimal overpotential. The O2 sensitivity of CODH is suppressed by adding cyanide, a reversible inhibitor of CO oxidation, or by raising the electrode potential. Reduction of N2O, isoelectronic with CO2, is catalyzed by CODH, but the reaction is sluggish, despite a large overpotential, and results in inactivation. Production of H2 and formate under highly reducing conditions is consistent with calculations predicting that a nickel-hydrido species might be formed, but the very low rates suggest that such a species is not on the main catalytic pathway.
Project description:Several small molecules and ions, notably carbon monoxide, cyanide, cyanate, and hydrogen sulfide, are potent inhibitors of Ni-containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenases (Ni-CODH) that catalyze very rapid, efficient redox interconversions of CO(2) and CO. Protein film electrochemistry, which probes the dependence of steady-state catalytic rate over a wide potential range, reveals how these inhibitors target particular oxidation levels of Ni-CODH relating to intermediates (C(ox), C(red1), and C(red2)) that have been established for the active site. The following properties are thus established: (1) CO suppresses CO(2) reduction (CO is a product inhibitor), but its binding affinity decreases as the potential becomes more negative. (2) Cyanide totally inhibits CO oxidation, but its effect on CO(2) reduction is limited to a narrow potential region (between -0.5 and -0.6 V), below which CO(2) reduction activity is restored. (3) Cyanate is a strong inhibitor of CO(2) reduction but inhibits CO oxidation only within a narrow potential range just above the CO(2)/CO thermodynamic potential--EPR spectra confirm that cyanate binds selectively to C(red2). (4) Hydrogen sulfide (H(2)S/HS(-)) inhibits CO oxidation but not CO(2) reduction--the complex on/off characteristics are consistent with it binding at the same oxidation level as C(ox) and forming a modified version of this inactive state rather than reacting directly with C(red1). The results provide a new perspective on the properties of different catalytic intermediates of Ni-CODH--uniting and clarifying many previous investigations.
Project description:The reaction of the air-tolerant CO dehydrogenase from Oligotropha carboxidovorans with H2 has been examined. Like the Ni-Fe CO dehydrogenase, the enzyme can be reduced by H2 with a limiting rate constant of 5.3 s(-1) and a dissociation constant Kd of 525 μM; both kred and kred/Kd, reflecting the breakdown of the Michaelis complex and the reaction of free enzyme with free substrate in the low [S] regime, respectively, are largely pH-independent. During the reaction with H2, a new EPR signal arising from the Mo/Cu-containing active site of the enzyme is observed which is distinct from the signal seen when the enzyme is reduced by CO, with greater g anisotropy and larger hyperfine coupling to the active site (63,65)Cu. The signal also exhibits hyperfine coupling to at least two solvent-exchangeable protons of bound substrate that are rapidly exchanged with solvent. Proton coupling is also evident in the EPR signal seen with the dithionite-reduced native enzyme, and this coupling is lost in the presence of bicarbonate. We attribute the coupled protons in the dithionite-reduced enzyme to coordinated water at the copper site in the native enzyme and conclude that bicarbonate is able to displace this water from the copper coordination sphere. On the basis of our results, a mechanism for H2 oxidation is proposed which involves initial binding of H2 to the copper of the binuclear center, displacing the bound water, followed by sequential deprotonation through a copper-hydride intermediate to reduce the binuclear center.
Project description:Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) from Oligotropha carboxydovorans catalyzes the oxidation of carbon monoxide to carbon dioxide, providing the organism both a carbon source and energy for growth. In the oxidative half of the catalytic cycle, electrons gained from CO are ultimately passed to the electron transport chain of the Gram-negative organism, but the proximal acceptor of reducing equivalents from the enzyme has not been established. Here we investigate the reaction of the reduced enzyme with various quinones and find them to be catalytically competent. Benzoquinone has a k(ox) of 125.1 s(-1) and a K(d) of 48 μM. Ubiquinone-1 has a k(ox)/K(d) value of 2.88 × 10(5) M(-1) s(-1). 1,4-Naphthoquinone has a k(ox) of 38 s(-1) and a K(d) of 140 μM. 1,2-Naphthoquinone-4-sulfonic acid has a k(ox)/K(d) of 1.31 × 10(5) M(-1) s(-1). An extensive effort to identify a cytochrome that could be reduced by CO/CODH was unsuccessful. Steady-state studies with benzoquinone indicate that the rate-limiting step is in the reductive half of the reaction (that is, the reaction of oxidized enzyme with CO). On the basis of the inhibition of CODH by diphenyliodonium chloride, we conclude that quinone substrates interact with CODH at the enzyme's flavin site. Our results strongly suggest that CODH donates reducing equivalents directly to the quinone pool without using a cytochrome as an intermediary.
Project description:The CO dehydrogenase structural genes (cox) and orf4 are clustered in the transcriptional order coxM--> coxS--> coxL--> orf4 on the 128-kb megaplasmid pHCG3 of the carboxidotroph Oligotropha carboxidovorans OM5. Sequence analysis suggested association of molybdopterin cytosine dinucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide with CoxL and of the [2Fe-2S] clusters with CoxS.
Project description:A crystal structure of the anaerobic Ni-Fe-S carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) from Rhodospirillum rubrum has been determined to 2.8-A resolution. The CODH family, for which the R. rubrum enzyme is the prototype, catalyzes the biological oxidation of CO at an unusual Ni-Fe-S cluster called the C-cluster. The Ni-Fe-S C-cluster contains a mononuclear site and a four-metal cubane. Surprisingly, anomalous dispersion data suggest that the mononuclear site contains Fe and not Ni, and the four-metal cubane has the form [NiFe(3)S(4)] and not [Fe(4)S(4)]. The mononuclear site and the four-metal cluster are bridged by means of Cys(531) and one of the sulfides of the cube. CODH is organized as a dimer with a previously unidentified [Fe(4)S(4)] cluster bridging the two subunits. Each monomer is comprised of three domains: a helical domain at the N terminus, an alpha/beta (Rossmann-like) domain in the middle, and an alpha/beta (Rossmann-like) domain at the C terminus. The helical domain contributes ligands to the bridging [Fe(4)S(4)] cluster and another [Fe(4)S(4)] cluster, the B-cluster, which is involved in electron transfer. The two Rossmann domains contribute ligands to the active site C-cluster. This x-ray structure provides insight into the mechanism of biological CO oxidation and has broader significance for the roles of Ni and Fe in biological systems.
Project description:Carbon monoxide (CO) occurs naturally in the atmosphere where it plays a critical role in tropospheric chemistry. Atmospheric CO uptake by soils has been well documented as an important CO sink and has been attributed to a group of aerobic bacteria that possess a molybdenum-dependent CO dehydrogenase (Mo-CODH). CO can also be oxidized by obligate Ni-dependent anaerobes (Ni-COX) that possess nickel-dependent CODHs (Ni-CODH) but relatively little is known about their ecology or their potential to contribute to CO dynamics within soils and sediments or to soil-atmosphere CO exchanges. Results from a series of assays undertaken with diverse soils and sediments and CO concentrations of 10 ppm and 25% with incubation temperatures of 10, 25, and 60°C revealed anaerobic uptake rates with 10 ppm CO that were comparable to those measured under oxic conditions; further, anaerobic CO uptake occurred without a lag and at atmospheric and sub-atmospheric CO concentrations. Assays with 25% CO revealed previously undocumented activity at 10°C and showed extensive activity at 25°C. Results from prior studies with isolates and soils suggest that anaerobic uptake at both 10 ppm and 25% CO concentrations might be attributed to Ni-COX. Collectively the results considerably expand the ecological range for Ni-COX and indicate that they could play previously unsuspected roles in soil CO dynamics.
Project description:Even though thermophiles are best known from geothermal and other heated systems, numerous studies have demonstrated that they occur ubiquitously in mesothermal and permanently cold soils and sediments. Cultivation based studies of the latter have revealed that the thermophiles within them are mostly spore-forming members of the Firmicutes. Since the geographic distribution of spores is presumably unconstrained by transport through the atmosphere, similar communities (composition and diversity) of thermophiles might be expected to emerge in mesothermal habitats after they are heated. Alternatively, thermophiles might experience environmental selection before or after heating leading to divergent communities. After demonstrating the ubiquity of anaerobic thermophiles and CO uptake in a variety of mesothermal habitats and two hot springs, we used high throughput sequencing of 16S rRNA genes to assess the composition and diversity of populations that emerged after incubation at 60°C with or without headspace CO concentrations of 25%. Anaerobic Firmicutes dominated relative abundances at most sites but anaerobic thermophilic members of the Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria were also common. Nonetheless, compositions at the amplicon sequence variant (ASV) level varied among the sites with no convergence resulting from heating or CO addition as indicated by beta diversity analyses. The distinctions among thermophilic communities paralleled patterns observed for unheated "time zero" mesothermal soils and sediments. Occupancy analyses showed that the number of ASVs occupying each of n sites decreased unimodally with increasing n; no ASV occupied all 14 sites and only one each occupied 11 and 12 sites, while 69.3% of 1873 ASVs occupied just one site. Nonetheless, considerations of distances among the sites occupied by individual ASVs along with details of their distributions indicated that taxa were not dispersal limited but rather were constrained by environmental selection. This conclusion was supported by βMNTD and βNTI analyses, which showed dispersal limitation was only a minor contributor to taxon distributions.
Project description:The nickel-dependent carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) employs a unique heterometallic nickel-iron-sulfur cluster, termed the C-cluster, to catalyze the interconversion of CO and CO2 Like other complex metalloenzymes, CODH requires dedicated assembly machinery to form the fully intact and functional C-cluster. In particular, nickel incorporation into the C-cluster depends on the maturation factor CooC; however, the mechanism of nickel insertion remains poorly understood. Here, we compare X-ray structures (1.50-2.48 Å resolution) of CODH from Desulfovibrio vulgaris (DvCODH) heterologously expressed in either the absence (DvCODH-CooC) or presence (DvCODH+CooC) of co-expressed CooC. We find that the C-cluster of DvCODH-CooC is fully loaded with iron but does not contain any nickel. Interestingly, the so-called unique iron ion (Feu) occupies both its canonical site (80% occupancy) and the nickel site (20% occupancy), with addition of reductant causing further mismetallation of the nickel site (60% iron occupancy). We also demonstrate that a DvCODH variant that lacks a surface-accessible iron-sulfur cluster (the D-cluster) has a C-cluster that is also replete in iron but lacks nickel, despite co-expression with CooC. In this variant, all Feu is in its canonical location, and the nickel site is empty. This D-cluster-deficient CODH is inactive despite attempts to reconstitute it with nickel. Taken together, these results suggest that an empty nickel site is not sufficient for nickel incorporation. Based on our findings, we propose a model for C-cluster assembly that requires both CooC and a functioning D-cluster, involves precise redox-state control, and includes a two-step nickel-binding process.
Project description:Anaerobic Ni-containing carbon-monoxide dehydrogenases (Ni-CODHs) catalyze the reversible conversion between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide as multi-enzyme complexes responsible for carbon fixation and energy conservation in anaerobic microbes. However, few biochemically characterized model enzymes exist, with most Ni-CODHs remaining functionally unknown. Here, we performed phylogenetic and structure-based Ni-CODH classification using an expanded dataset comprised of 1942 non-redundant Ni-CODHs from 1375 Ni-CODH-encoding genomes across 36 phyla. Ni-CODHs were divided into seven clades, including a novel clade. Further classification into 24 structural groups based on sequence analysis combined with structural prediction revealed diverse structural motifs for metal cluster formation and catalysis, including novel structural motifs potentially capable of forming metal clusters or binding metal ions, indicating Ni-CODH diversity and plasticity. Phylogenetic analysis illustrated that the metal clusters responsible for intermolecular electron transfer were drastically altered during evolution. Additionally, we identified novel putative Ni-CODH-associated proteins from genomic contexts other than the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway and energy converting hydrogenase system proteins. Network analysis among the structural groups of Ni-CODHs, their associated proteins and taxonomies revealed previously unrecognized gene clusters for Ni-CODHs, including uncharacterized structural groups with putative metal transporters, oxidoreductases, or transcription factors. These results suggested diversification of Ni-CODH structures adapting to their associated proteins across microbial genomes.