Vibrational spectroscopy reveals the initial steps of biological hydrogen evolution (original) (raw)

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

a Institut für Chemie, Technische Universitaet Berlin, Strasse des 17. Juni 135, D-10623 Berlin, Germany
E-mail: marius.horch@gmx.de, ingo.zebger@tu-berlin.de

b Fakultaet für Biologie und Biotechnologie, Lehrstuhl für Biochemie der Pflanzen, AG Photobiotechnologie, Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum, Universitaetsstrasse 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany

c Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Energiekonversion, Stiftstraße 34-36, Muelheim an der Ruhr, Germany

Abstract

[FeFe] hydrogenases are biocatalytic model systems for the exploitation and investigation of catalytic hydrogen evolution. Here, we used vibrational spectroscopic techniques to characterize, in detail, redox transformations of the [FeFe] and [4Fe4S] sub-sites of the catalytic centre (H-cluster) in a monomeric [FeFe] hydrogenase. Through the application of low-temperature resonance Raman spectroscopy, we discovered a novel metastable intermediate that is characterized by an oxidized [FeIFeII] centre and a reduced [4Fe4S]1+ cluster. Based on this unusual configuration, this species is assigned to the first, deprotonated H-cluster intermediate of the [FeFe] hydrogenase catalytic cycle. Providing insights into the sequence of initial reaction steps, the identification of this species represents a key finding towards the mechanistic understanding of biological hydrogen evolution.

Graphical abstract: Vibrational spectroscopy reveals the initial steps of biological hydrogen evolution

This article is Open Access

Please wait while we load your content... Something went wrong. Try again?

Supplementary files

Article information

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1039/C6SC01098A

Article type

Edge Article

Submitted

09 Mar 2016

Accepted

29 Jun 2016

First published

11 Jul 2016

This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry

Creative Commons BY license

Download Citation

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6746-6752

Author version available

Permissions

Vibrational spectroscopy reveals the initial steps of biological hydrogen evolution

S. Katz, J. Noth, M. Horch, H. S. Shafaat, T. Happe, P. Hildebrandt and I. Zebger,Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6746DOI: 10.1039/C6SC01098A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements