Examination of Enzymatic H-tunneling Through Kinetics and Dynamics

In recent years, kinetic measurements of isotope effects of enzyme-catalyzed reactions and their temperature dependence led to the development of theoretical models that were used to rationalize the findings. These models suggested that motions at the femto- to picosecond (fs to ps) time scale modulate the environment of the catalyzed reaction. Due to the fast nature of motions that directly affect the cleavage of a covalent bond, it is challenging to correlate the enzyme kinetics and dynamics related to that step. We report a study of formate dehydrogenase (FDH) that compares the temperature dependence of intrinsic kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) to measurements of the environmental dynamics at the fs-ps time scale (Bandaria et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 22-23). The findings from this comparison of experimental kinetics and dynamics are consistent with models of environmentally coupled H-tunneling models, also known as Marcus-like models. Apparently, at tunneling ready conformations, the donor-acceptor distance, orientation, and fluctuations seems to be well tuned for H-transfer and are not affected by thermal fluctuations slower than 10 ps. This phenomenon has been suggested in the past to be quite general in enzymatic reactions. Here, the kinetics and the dynamics measurements on a single chemical step and on fs-ps time scale, respectively, provide new insight and support for the relevant theoretical models. Furthermore, this methodology could be applied to other systems and be used to examine mutants for which the organization of the donor and acceptor is not ideal, or enzymes with different rigidity and different temperature optimum.