Use of Noncanonical Tyrosine Analogues to Probe Control of Radical Intermediates during Endoperoxide Installation by Verruculogen Synthase (FtmOx1)

Important bioactive natural products, including prostaglandin H-2 and artemisinin, contain reactive endoperoxides. Known enzymatic pathways for endoperoxide installation require multiple hydrogen-atom transfers (HATs). For example, iron(II)- and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent verruculogen synthase (FtmOx1; EC 1.14.11.38) mediates HAT from aliphatic C21 of fumitremorgin B, capture of O-2 by the C21 radical (C21 center dot), addition of the peroxyl radical (C21-O-O center dot) to olefinic C27, and HAT to the resultant C26 center dot. Recent studies proposed conflicting roles for FtmOx1 tyrosine residues, Tyr224 and Tyr68, in the HATs from C21 and to C26 center dot. Here, analysis of variant proteins bearing a ring-halogenated tyrosine or (amino)phenylalanine in place of either residue establishes that Tyr68 is the hydrogen donor to C26 center dot, while Tyr224 has no essential role. The radicals that accumulate rapidly in FtmOx1 variants bearing a HAT-competent tyrosine analogue at position 68 exhibit hypsochromically shifted absorption and, in cases of fluorine substitution, F-19-coupled electron-paramagnetic-resonance (EPR) spectra. By contrast, functional Tyr224-substituted variants generate radicals with unaltered light-absorption and EPR signatures as they produce verruculogen. The alternative major product of the Tyr68Phe variant, which forms competitively with verruculogen also in wild-type FtmOx1 in (H2O)-H-2 and in the variant with the less readily oxidized 2,3-F(2)Tyr at position 68, is identified by mass spectrometry and isotopic labeling as the 26-hydroxy-21,27-endoperoxide compound formed after capture of another equivalent of O-2 by the longer lived C26 center dot. The results highlight the considerable chemical challenges the enzyme must navigate in averting both oxygen rebound and a second O-2 coupling to obtain verruculogen selectively over other possible products.