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Science 18 October 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5593, pp. 567 - 572
DOI: 10.1126/science.1075843
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Research Articles

A Ni-Fe-Cu Center in a Bifunctional Carbon Monoxide Dehydrogenase/ Acetyl-CoA Synthase

Tzanko I. Doukov,1 Tina M. Iverson,1* Javier Seravalli,2 Stephen W. Ragsdale,2 Catherine L. Drennan1dagger

A metallocofactor containing iron, sulfur, copper, and nickel has been discovered in the enzyme carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA (coenzyme A) synthase from Moorella thermoacetica (f. Clostridium thermoaceticum). Our structure at 2.2 angstrom resolution reveals that the cofactor responsible for the assembly of acetyl-CoA contains a [Fe4S4] cubane bridged to a copper-nickel binuclear site. The presence of these three metals together in one cluster was unanticipated and suggests a newly discovered role for copper in biology. The different active sites of this bifunctional enzyme complex are connected via a channel, 138 angstroms long, that provides a conduit for carbon monoxide generated at the C-cluster on one subunit to be incorporated into acetyl-CoA at the A-cluster on the other subunit.

1 Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Department of Biochemistry, Beadle Center, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588, USA.
*   Present address: Division of Biomedical Sciences, MPC, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AZ, UK.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cdrennan{at}mit.edu

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