Paramagnetic 1H NMR Spectroscopy to Investigate the Catalytic Mechanism of Radical S-Adenosylmethionine Enzymes

Iron-sulfur clusters in radical S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) enzymes catalyze an astonishing array of complex and chemically challenging reactions across all domains of life. Here we showed that 1H NMR spectroscopy experiments tailored to reveal hyperfine-shifted signals of metal-ligands is a powerful tool to monitor the binding of SAM and of the octanoyl-peptide substrate to the two [4Fe-4S] clusters of human lipoyl synthase. The paramagnetically shifted signals of the iron-ligands were specifically assigned to each of the two bound [4Fe-4S] clusters, and then used to examine the interaction of SAM and substrate molecules with each of the two [4Fe-4S] clusters of human lipoyl synthase. 1H NMR spectroscopy can therefore contribute to the description of the catalityc mechanism of radical SAM enzymes.