{"id":726,"date":"2026-04-15T13:22:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/?p=726"},"modified":"2026-04-15T13:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:22:40","slug":"localization-of-a-catalytic-intermediate-bound-to-the-femo-cofactor-of-nitrogenase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/?p=726","title":{"rendered":"Localization of a Catalytic Intermediate Bound to the FeMo-cofactor of Nitrogenase"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>DOI:<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1074\/jbc.m403194200\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">10.1074\/jbc.m403194200<\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Authors:<\/h4>\n<p>Robert Y. Igarashi, Patricia C. Dos Santos, Walter G. Niehaus, Ian Dance, Dennis R. Dean, Lance C. Seefeldt<\/p>\n<h4>Abstract:<\/h4>\n<p>Nitrogenase catalyzes the biological reduction of N(2) to ammonia (nitrogen fixation) as well as the reduction of a number of alternative substrates, including acetylene (HC identical with CH) to ethylene (H2C=CH2). It is known that the metallocluster FeMo-cofactor located within the nitrogenase MoFe protein component provides the site of substrate reduction, but the exact site where substrates bind and are reduced on the FeMo-cofactor remains unknown. We have recently shown that the alpha-70 residue of the MoFe protein plays a significant role in defining substrate access to the active site; alpha-70 approaches one face of the FeMo-cofactor, and when valine is substituted by alanine at this position, the substituted nitrogenase is able to accommodate a reduction of the larger alkyne propargyl alcohol (HC identical with CCH(2)OH, propargyl-OH). During this reduction, a substrate-derived intermediate can be trapped on the FeMo-cofactor resulting in an S = 1\/2 spin system with a novel electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum. In the present work, trapping of the propargyl-OH-derived or propargyl amine (HC identical with CCH(2)NH(2), propargyl-NH(2))-derived intermediates is shown to be dependent on pH and the presence of histidine at position alpha-195. It is concluded that these catalytic intermediates are stabilized and thereby trapped by H-bonding interactions between either the-OH group or the-NH(3)(+)group and the imidazole epsilon-NH of alpha-195(His). Thus, for the first time it is possible to establish the location of a bound substrate-derived intermediate on the FeMo-cofactor. Refinement of the binding mode and site was accomplished by the use of density functional and force field calculations pointing to an eta(2) coordination at Fe-6 of the FeMo-cofactor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DOI: 10.1074\/jbc.m403194200 Authors: Robert Y. Igarashi, Patricia C. Dos Santos, Walter G. Niehaus, Ian Dance, Dennis R. Dean, Lance C. Seefeldt Abstract: Nitrogenase catalyzes the biological reduction of N(2) to ammonia (nitrogen fixation) as well as the reduction of a number of alternative substrates, including acetylene (HC identical with CH) to ethylene (H2C=CH2). It is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freeze-quench"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citations.tools.bio-logic.fr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}