Enzyme-bound pentadienyl and peroxyl radicals in purple lipoxygenase

Samples of purple lipoxygenase prepared by addition of either 13-hydroperoxy-9,11-octadecadienoic acid or linoleic acid and oxygen to ferric lipoxygenase contain pentadienyl and/or peroxyl radicals. The radicals are identified by the g values and hyperfine splitting parameters of natural abundance and isotopically enriched samples. The line shapes of their EPR spectra suggest the radicals are conformationally constrained when compared to spectra of the same radicals generated in frozen linoleic acid. Further, the EPR spectra are unusually difficult to saturate. The radicals are stable in buffered aqueous solution at 4 degrees C for several minutes. All of this implies that these species are bound to the enzyme, possibly in proximity to the iron. Only peroxyl radical is seen when the purple enzyme is generated with either hydroperoxide or linoleic acid in O2-saturated solutions. Addition of natural abundance hydroperoxide under 17O-enriched O2 leads to the 17O-enriched peroxyl radical, while the opposite labeling results in the natural abundance peroxyl radical, demonstrating the exchange of oxygen. Both radicals are detected in samples of purple lipoxygenase prepared with either linoleic acid or hydroperoxide under air. Addition of the hydroperoxide in the absence of oxygen favors the pentadienyl radical. We propose that addition of either linoleic acid or hydroperoxide to ferric lipoxygenase leads to multiple mechanistically connected enzyme complexes, including those with (hydro)peroxide, peroxide, peroxyl radical, pentadienyl radical, and linoleic acid bound. This hypothesis is essentially identical with the proposed radical mechanism of oxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids by lipoxygenase.