Use of Isotopes and Isotope Effects for Investigations of Diiron Oxygenase Mechanisms

Isotope effects of four broad and overlapping categories have been applied to the study of the mechanisms of chemical reaction and regulation of nonheme diiron cluster-containing oxygenases. The categories are: (a) mass properties that allow substrate-to-product conversions to be tracked, (b) atomic properties that allow specialized spectroscopies, (c) mass properties that impact primarily vibrational spectroscopies, and (d) bond dissociation energy shifts that permit dynamic isotope effect studies of many types. The application of these categories of isotope effects is illustrated using the soluble methane monooxygenase system and CmlI, which catalyzes the multistep arylamine to arylnitro conversion in the biosynthetic pathway for chloramphenicol.