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![Protein Film Infrared Electrochemistry Demonstrated for Study of H2 Oxidation by a [NiFe] Hydrogenase](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront.jove.com%2FCDNSource%2Fteasers%2F55858.jpg&w=3840&q=50)
Protein Film Infrared Electrochemistry Demonstrated for Study of H2 Oxidation by a [NiFe] Hydrogenase
Published on: December 4, 2017
Enhanced active-site electric field accelerates enzyme catalysis
Chu Zheng1, Zhe Ji1, Irimpan I Mathews2
1Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
Abstract:
The design and improvement of enzymes based on physical principles remain challenging. Here we demonstrate that the principle of electrostatic catalysis can be leveraged to substantially improve a natural enzyme's activity. We enhanced the active-site electric field in horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase by replacing the serine hydrogen-bond donor with threonine and replacing the catalytic Zn2+ with Co2+. Based on the electric field enhancement, we make a quantitative prediction of rate acceleration-50-fold faster than the wild-type enzyme-which was in close agreement with experimental measurements. The effects of the hydrogen bonding and metal coordination, two distinct chemical forces, are described by a unified physical quantity-electric field, which is quantitative, and shown here to be additive and predictive. These results suggest a new design paradigm for both biological and non-biological catalysts.
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