Post-translational modification of Rhodococcus R312 and Comamonas NI1 nitrile hydratases

Nitrile hydratases (NHases) are industrially significant iron- and cobalt-containing enzymes used in the large-scale synthesis of acrylamide. Previous reports have shown that the active site peptides of NHases are post-translationally modified by oxidation of cysteine residues, and that these modifications are essential for catalysis. We report mass spectrometric evidence of the oxidation states of the active site cysteines in the iron coordination spheres of two iron-containing nitrile hydratases, namely R312 NHase from Rhodococcus rhodochrous strain R312 and NI1 NHase from Comamonas testosteroni. At least one of these cysteines is oxidised to a sulfinic acid (SO2H) and there is also evidence suggesting an additional oxidation to a sulfenic acid (SOH). This is the first evidence for the presence of these oxidation states for full-length NHases and for Fe-NHases from different microorganisms. The presence of these covalent modifications was confirmed by performing mass spectrometry on the active site peptide of R312 NHase, under native, reduced and carboxymethylated conditions. We also show the nitrosylation of the iron by mass spectrometry, as well as the release of NO by photoirradiation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.