Olivia McCubbin Stepanic

Introduction Click to copy section linkSection link copied! Mononuclear end-on superoxocopper(II) species, CuII(η1-O2•–), have been invoked as hydrogen atom abstracting agents in a plethora of O2 activating copper enzymes. (1,2) This includes the noncoupled binuclear copper enzymes PHM, DβM, and TβM, which catalyze hydroxylation of activated C–H bonds of their native substrates, (3) and formylglycine-generating enzyme (FGE), which is responsible for the conversion of cysteine to formylglycine.

Synopsis Zinc is a biologically prevalent transition metal but is largely silent to spectroscopic techniques. Zn K-edge X-ray absorption (XAS) and valence-to-core X-ray emission (VtC XES) spectroscopies offer a unique chance to probe the local structure of zinc proteins and molecules. Herein, a series of biologically relevant zinc complexes were studied using XAS and VtC XES, in combination with DFT calculations.