Nitrous oxide reductase is the
terminal
component of a respiratory chain utilizing N2O
in
lieu of oxygen. It is a homodimer carrying in each subunit the electron
transfer site, CuA, and the substrate-reducing
catalytic
center, CuZ. Spectroscopic data have provided
robust
evidence for CuA as a binuclear, mixed-valence
metal
site. To provide further structural information on the CuA
center of N2O reductase, site-directed
mutagenesis
and Cu K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopic investigation have been
undertaken.
Candidate amino acids as ligands for the CuA
center
of the enzyme from Pseudomonas stutzeri ATCC14405 were
substituted
by evolutionary conserved residues or amino acids similar to the
wild-type
residues. The mutations identified the amino acids H583, C618, C622 and
M629 as ligands of Cu1, and C618, C622 and H626
as
the minimal set of ligands for Cu2 of the CuA
center. Other amino acid substitutions indicated H494 as a likely
ligand
of CuZ, and an indirect role for D580, compatible with a docking
function
for the electron donor. Cu binding and spectroscopic properties of
recombinant
N2O reductase proteins point at intersubunit or interdomain interaction
of CuA and CuZ. Cu K-edge
X-ray
absorption spectra have been recorded to investigate the local
environment
of the Cu centers in N2O reductase. Cu K-edge
Extended
X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS) for binuclear Cu chemical
systems
show clear evidence for Cu backscattering at ca. 2.5 Å. The Cu
K-edge
EXAFS of the CuA center of N2O
reductase is very similar to that of the CuA
center
of cytochrome c oxidase and the optimum simulation of the
experimental
data involves backscattering from a histidine group with Cu-N of 1.92
Å,
two sulfur atoms at 2.24 Å and a Cu atom at 2.43 Å, and
allows
for the presence of a further light atom (oxygen or nitrogen) at 2.05
Å.
The interpretation of the CuA EXAFS is in line
with
ligands assigned by site-directed mutagenesis. By a difference spectrum
approach, using the Cu K-edge EXAFS of the holoenzyme and that of the CuA-only
form, histidine was identified as a major contributor to the
backscattering.
A structural model for the CuA center of N2O
reductase has been generated on the basis of the atomic coordinates for
the homologous domain of cytochrome c oxidase and incorporating
our current results and previous spectroscopic data.