Spectroscopic and computational methods have been used to determine the protonation state of the edge sulfur ligand in the Cu4S2 CuZ form of the active site of nitrous oxide reductase (N2OR) in its 3CuICuII (1-hole) and 2CuI2CuII (2-hole) redox states. The EPR, absorption, and MCD spectra of 1-hole CuZ indicate that the unpaired spin in this site is evenly delocalized over CuI, CuII, and CuIV. 1-hole CuZ is shown to have a mu2-thiolate edge ligand from the observation of S-H bending modes in the resonance Raman spectrum at 450 and 492 cm-1 that have significant deuterium isotope shifts (-137 cm-1) and are not perturbed up to pH 10. 2-hole CuZ is characterized with absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopies as having two Cu-S stretching vibrations that profile differently. DFT models of the 1-hole and 2-hole CuZ sites are correlated to these spectroscopic features to determine that 2-hole CuZ has a mu2-sulfide edge ligand at neutral pH. The slow two electron (+1 proton) reduction of N2O by 1-hole CuZ is discussed and the possibility of a reaction between 2-hole CuZ and O2 is considered.
N2OR has been found to have two structural forms of its tetranuclear copper active site, the 4CuS Cu(Z)* form and the 4Cu2S Cu(Z) form. EPR, resonance Raman, and MCD spectroscopies have been used to determine the redox states of these sites under different reductant conditions, showing that the Cu(Z)* site accesses the 1-hole and fully reduced redox states, while the Cu(Z) site accesses the 2-hole and 1-hole redox states. Single-turnover reactions of N2OR for Cu(Z) and Cu(Z)* poised in these redox states and steady-state turnover assays with different proportions of Cu(Z) and Cu(Z)* show that only fully reduced Cu(Z)* is catalytically competent in rapid turnover with N2O.
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