Discovering the electronic circuit diagram of life: structural relationships among transition metal binding sites in oxidoreductases

Unveiling the role of inorganic nanoparticles in Earth's biochemical evolution through electron transfer dynamics

This article explores the intricate interplay between inorganic nanoparticles and Earth's biochemical history, with a focus on their electron transfer properties. It reveals how iron oxide and sulfide nanoparticles, as examples of inorganic nanoparticles, exhibit oxidoreductase activity similar to proteins. Termed "life fossil oxidoreductases," these inorganic enzymes influence redox reactions, detoxification processes, and nutrient cycling in early Earth environments. By emphasizing the structural configuration of nanoparticles and their electron conformation, including oxygen defects and metal vacancies, especially electron hopping, the article provides a foundation for understanding inorganic enzyme mechanisms. This approach, rooted in physics, underscores that life's origin and evolution are governed by electron transfer principles within the framework of chemical equilibrium. Today, these nanoparticles serve as vital biocatalysts in natural ecosystems, participating in critical reactions for ecosystem health. The research highlights their enduring impact on Earth's history, shaping ecosystems and interacting with protein metal centers through shared electron transfer dynamics, offering insights into early life processes and adaptations.

Inorganic Fe-O and Fe-S oxidoreductases: paradigms for prebiotic chemistry and the evolution of enzymatic activity in biology

Oxidoreductases play crucial roles in electron transfer during biological redox reactions. These reactions are not exclusive to protein-based biocatalysts; nano-size (<100 nm), fine-grained inorganic colloids, such as iron oxides and sulfides, also participate. These nanocolloids exhibit intrinsic redox activity and possess direct electron transfer capacities comparable to their biological counterparts. The unique metal ion architecture of these nanocolloids, including electron configurations, coordination environment, electron conductivity, and the ability to promote spontaneous electron hopping, contributes to their transfer capabilities. Nano-size inorganic colloids are believed to be among the earliest 'oxidoreductases' to have 'evolved' on early Earth, playing critical roles in biological systems. Representing a distinct type of biocatalysts alongside metalloproteins, these nanoparticles offer an early alternative to protein-based oxidoreductase activity. While the roles of inorganic nano-sized catalysts in current Earth ecosystems are intuitively significant, they remain poorly understood and underestimated. Their contribution to chemical reactions and biogeochemical cycles likely helped shape and maintain the balance of our planet's ecosystems. However, their potential applications in biomedical, agricultural, and environmental protection sectors have not been fully explored or exploited. This review examines the structure, properties, and mechanisms of such catalysts from a material's evolutionary standpoint, aiming to raise awareness of their potential to provide innovative solutions to some of Earth's sustainability challenges.

Oxidoreductases and metal cofactors in the functioning of the earth

Life sustains itself using energy generated by thermodynamic disequilibria, commonly existing as redox disequilibria. Metals are significant players in controlling redox reactions, as they are essential components of the engine that life uses to tap into the thermodynamic disequilibria necessary for metabolism. The number of proteins that evolved to catalyze redox reactions is extraordinary, as is the diversification level of metal cofactors and catalytic domain structures involved. Notwithstanding the importance of the topic, the relationship between metals and the redox reactions they are involved in has been poorly explored. This work reviews the structure and function of different prokaryotic organometallic-protein complexes, highlighting their pivotal role in controlling biogeochemistry. We focus on a specific subset of metal-containing oxidoreductases (EC1 or EC7.1), which are directly involved in biogeochemical cycles, i.e., at least one substrate or product is a small inorganic molecule that is or can be exchanged with the environment. Based on these inclusion criteria, we select and report 59 metalloenzymes, describing the organometallic structure of their active sites, the redox reactions in which they are involved, and their biogeochemical roles.

Solar-powered P450 catalysis: Engineering electron transfer pathways from photosynthesis to P450s

With the increasing focus on green chemistry, biocatalysis is becoming more widely used in the pharmaceutical and other chemical industries for sustainable production of high value and structurally complex chemicals. Cytochrome P450 monooxygenases (P450s) are attractive biocatalysts for industrial application due to their ability to transform a huge range of substrates in a stereo- and regiospecific manner. However, despite their appeal, the industrial application of P450s is limited by their dependence on costly reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) and one or more auxiliary redox partner proteins. Coupling P450s to the photosynthetic machinery of a plant allows photosynthetically-generated electrons to be used to drive catalysis, overcoming this cofactor dependency. Thus, photosynthetic organisms could serve as photobioreactors with the capability to produce value-added chemicals using only light, water, CO2 and an appropriate chemical as substrate for the reaction/s of choice, yielding new opportunities for producing commodity and high-value chemicals in a carbon-negative and sustainable manner. This review will discuss recent progress in using photosynthesis for light-driven P450 biocatalysis and explore the potential for further development of such systems.

Manganese Schiff Base Complexes, Crystallographic Studies, Anticancer Activities, and Molecular Docking

Choice of ligands is significant to successful synthesis of metal complexes (coordination compounds). This study reports the use of Schiff base as the right ligand to control the poor bioavailability and neurodegenerative toxicity challenges of manganese ion. In line with this study, document analysis was used as the methodological approach to evaluate the significance of Schiff base ligands in easing these manganese’s challenges and aligning the resultant coordination compounds (manganese Schiff base complexes) as therapeutic agents in anticancer studies. Report also involves crystallographic studies where single crystal X-ray crystallography was used as a chemical characterization technique. In addition, molecular docking studies, MOE2008, and AutoDock software were used to reveal the mode of interaction between the Schiff base and the manganese(II) and (III) ions, as well as scrutinizing the biological efficacy of the manganese(II) and manganese(III) Schiff bases coordination compounds as anticancer agents against some anticancer cell lines. Conclusion drawn was that manganese(II) and manganese(III) Schiff bases coordination compounds gave more active and potent activities than the corresponding Schiff bases. As a result, challenges of neurodegenerative toxicity and poor bioavailability of manganese ion were overcome, and the chelation therapy was fulfilled. Results from single crystal X-ray crystallography confirmed the successful synthesis of manganese(II) and manganese(III) Schiff bases coordination compounds and revealed the mechanism of reaction, while the molecular docking buttressed the biological activities of the Schiff base ligand and manganese Schiff base coordination compounds by portraying the structure activity relationship (SAR) between either Schiff base or the manganese Schiff base coordination compounds and the virtual cancer cell line (receptor protein), where hits were obtained for lead optimizations.

Mineral Element Insiders and Outliers Play Crucial Roles in Biological Evolution

The geosphere of primitive Earth was the source of life's essential building blocks, and the geochemical interactions among chemical elements can inform the origins of biological roles of each element. Minerals provide a record of the fundamental properties that each chemical element contributes to crustal composition, evolution, and subsequent biological utilization. In this study, we investigate correlations between the mineral species and bulk crustal composition of each chemical element. There are statistically significant correlations between the number of elements that each element forms minerals with (#-mineral-elements) and the log of the number of mineral species that each element occurs in, and between #-mineral-elements and the log of the number of mineral localities of that element. There is a lesser correlation between the log of the crustal percentage of each element and #-mineral-elements. In the crustal percentage vs. #-mineral-elements plot, positive outliers have either important biological roles (S, Cu) or toxic biological impacts (Pb, As), while negative outliers have no biological importance (Sc, Ga, Br, Yb). In particular, S is an important bridge element between organic (e.g., amino acids) and inorganic (metal cofactors) biological components. While C and N rarely form minerals together, the two elements commonly form minerals with H, which coincides with the role of H as an electron donor/carrier in biological nitrogen and carbon fixation. Both abundant crustal percentage vs. #-mineral-elements insiders (elements that follow the correlation) and less abundant outsiders (positive outliers from the correlation) have important biological functions as essential structural elements and catalytic cofactors.

What are the inorganic nanozymes? Artificial or inorganic enzymes!

The research on inorganic nanozymes remains very active since the first paper on the “intrinsic peroxidase-like properties of ferromagnetic nanoparticles” was published in Nature Nanotechnology in 2007. However, there is...

The value of enzymes in solar fuels research – efficient electrocatalysts through evolution

Enzymes which evolved more than 2 billion years ago set exceptional standards for electrocatalysts being sought today.

Acetyl Phosphate as a Primordial Energy Currency at the Origin of Life

Metabolism is primed through the formation of thioesters via acetyl CoA and the phosphorylation of substrates by ATP. Prebiotic equivalents such as methyl thioacetate and acetyl phosphate have been proposed to catalyse analogous reactions at the origin of life, but their propensity to hydrolyse challenges this view. Here we show that acetyl phosphate (AcP) can be synthesised in water within minutes from thioacetate (but not methyl thioacetate) under ambient conditions. AcP is stable over hours, depending on temperature, pH and cation content, giving it an ideal poise between stability and reactivity. We show that AcP can phosphorylate nucleotide precursors such as ribose to ribose-5-phosphate and adenosine to adenosine monophosphate, at modest (~2%) yield in water, and at a range of pH. AcP can also phosphorylate ADP to ATP in water over several hours at 50 °C. But AcP did not promote polymerization of either glycine or AMP. The amino group of glycine was preferentially acetylated by AcP, especially at alkaline pH, hindering the formation of polypeptides. AMP formed small stacks of up to 7 monomers, but these did not polymerise in the presence of AcP in aqueous solution. We conclude that AcP can phosphorylate biologically meaningful substrates in a manner analogous to ATP, promoting the origins of metabolism, but is unlikely to have driven polymerization of macromolecules such as polypeptides or RNA in free solution. This is consistent with the idea that a period of monomer (cofactor) catalysis preceded the emergence of polymeric enzymes or ribozymes at the origin of life.

Modular origins of biological electron transfer chains

Oxidoreductases catalyze electron transfer reactions that ultimately provide the energy for life. A limited set of ancestral protein-metal modules are presumably the building blocks that evolved into this diverse protein family. However, the identity of these modules and their path to modern oxidoreductases is unknown. Using a comparative structural analysis approach, we identify a set of fundamental electron transfer modules that have evolved to form the extant oxidoreductases. Using transition metal-containing cofactors as fiducial markers, it is possible to cluster cofactor microenvironments into as few as four major modules: bacterial ferredoxin, cytochrome c, symerythrin, and plastocyanin-type folds. From structural alignments, it is challenging to ascertain whether modules evolved from a single common ancestor (homology) or arose by independent convergence on a limited set of structural forms (analogy). Additional insight into common origins is contained in the spatial adjacency network (SPAN), which is based on proximity of modules in oxidoreductases containing multiple cofactor electron transfer chains. Electron transfer chains within complex modern oxidoreductases likely evolved through repeated duplication and diversification of ancient modular units that arose in the Archean eon.

The Role of Microbial Electron Transfer in the Coevolution of the Biosphere and Geosphere

All life on Earth is dependent on biologically mediated electron transfer (i.e., redox) reactions that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. Biological redox reactions originally evolved in prokaryotes and ultimately, over the first ∼2.5 billion years of Earth's history, formed a global electronic circuit. To maintain the circuit on a global scale requires that oxidants and reductants be transported; the two major planetary wires that connect global metabolism are geophysical fluids-the atmosphere and the oceans. Because all organisms exchange gases with the environment, the evolution of redox reactions has been a major force in modifying the chemistry at Earth's surface. Here we briefly review the discovery and consequences of redox reactions in microbes with a specific focus on the coevolution of life and geochemical phenomena.

The Origin of Life in Alkaline Hydrothermal Vents

Over the last 70 years, prebiotic chemists have been very successful in synthesizing the molecules of life, from amino acids to nucleotides. Yet there is strikingly little resemblance between much of this chemistry and the metabolic pathways of cells, in terms of substrates, catalysts, and synthetic pathways. In contrast, alkaline hydrothermal vents offer conditions similar to those harnessed by modern autotrophs, but there has been limited experimental evidence that such conditions could drive prebiotic chemistry. In the Hadean, in the absence of oxygen, alkaline vents are proposed to have acted as electrochemical flow reactors, in which alkaline fluids saturated in H2 mixed with relatively acidic ocean waters rich in CO2, through a labyrinth of interconnected micropores with thin inorganic walls containing catalytic Fe(Ni)S minerals. The difference in pH across these thin barriers produced natural proton gradients with equivalent magnitude and polarity to the proton-motive force required for carbon fixation in extant bacteria and archaea. How such gradients could have powered carbon reduction or energy flux before the advent of organic protocells with genes and proteins is unknown. Work over the last decade suggests several possible hypotheses that are currently being tested in laboratory experiments, field observations, and phylogenetic reconstructions of ancestral metabolism. We analyze the perplexing differences in carbon and energy metabolism in methanogenic archaea and acetogenic bacteria to propose a possible ancestral mechanism of CO2 reduction in alkaline hydrothermal vents. Based on this mechanism, we show that the evolution of active ion pumping could have driven the deep divergence of bacteria and archaea.

Duplications of an iron–sulphur tripeptide leads to the formation of a protoferredoxin

Based on UV-Vis, NMR, and EPR spectroscopies and DFT and molecular dynamics calculations, a model prebiotic [2Fe–2S] tripeptide was shown to accept and donate electrons.

Structural principles for computational and de novo design of 4Fe-4S metalloproteins

Iron-sulfur centers in metalloproteins can access multiple oxidation states over a broad range of potentials, allowing them to participate in a variety of electron transfer reactions and serving as catalysts for high-energy redox processes. The nitrogenase FeMoCO cluster converts di-nitrogen to ammonia in an eight-electron transfer step. The 2(Fe4S4) containing bacterial ferredoxin is an evolutionarily ancient metalloprotein fold and is thought to be a primordial progenitor of extant oxidoreductases. Controlling chemical transformations mediated by iron-sulfur centers such as nitrogen fixation, hydrogen production as well as electron transfer reactions involved in photosynthesis are of tremendous importance for sustainable chemistry and energy production initiatives. As such, there is significant interest in the design of iron-sulfur proteins as minimal models to gain fundamental understanding of complex natural systems and as lead-molecules for industrial and energy applications. Herein, we discuss salient structural characteristics of natural iron-sulfur proteins and how they guide principles for design. Model structures of past designs are analyzed in the context of these principles and potential directions for enhanced designs are presented, and new areas of iron-sulfur protein design are proposed. This article is part of a Special issue entitled Biodesign for Bioenergetics--the design and engineering of electronic transfer cofactors, protein networks, edited by Ronald L. Koder and J.L Ross Anderson.

From Light to Life

The biogeochemical cycles of H, C, N, O and S are coupled via biologically catalyzed electron transfer (redox) reactions far from thermodynamic equilibrium. In this paper I examine the evolution of the structural motifs responsible for redox reactions (the biological "transistors") across the tree of life, and the photogeochemical reactions on minerals that ultimately came to be the driving force for these biological reactions.

An origin-of-life reactor to simulate alkaline hydrothermal vents

Chemiosmotic coupling is universal: practically all cells harness electrochemical proton gradients across membranes to drive ATP synthesis, powering biochemistry. Autotrophic cells, including phototrophs and chemolithotrophs, also use proton gradients to power carbon fixation directly. The universality of chemiosmotic coupling suggests that it arose very early in evolution, but its origins are obscure. Alkaline hydrothermal systems sustain natural proton gradients across the thin inorganic barriers of interconnected micropores within deep-sea vents. In Hadean oceans, these inorganic barriers should have contained catalytic Fe(Ni)S minerals similar in structure to cofactors in modern metabolic enzymes, suggesting a possible abiotic origin of chemiosmotic coupling. The continuous supply of H2 and CO2 from vent fluids and early oceans, respectively, offers further parallels with the biochemistry of ancient autotrophic cells, notably the acetyl CoA pathway in archaea and bacteria. However, the precise mechanisms by which natural proton gradients, H2, CO2 and metal sulphides could have driven organic synthesis are uncertain, and theoretical ideas lack empirical support. We have built a simple electrochemical reactor to simulate conditions in alkaline hydrothermal vents, allowing investigation of the possibility that abiotic vent chemistry could prefigure the origins of biochemistry. We discuss the construction and testing of the reactor, describing the precipitation of thin-walled, inorganic structures containing nickel-doped mackinawite, a catalytic Fe(Ni)S mineral, under prebiotic ocean conditions. These simulated vent structures appear to generate low yields of simple organics. Synthetic microporous matrices can concentrate organics by thermophoresis over several orders of magnitude under continuous open-flow vent conditions.

The long goodbye: the rise and fall of flavodoxin during plant evolution

Ferredoxins are electron shuttles harbouring iron-sulfur clusters that connect multiple oxido-reductive pathways in organisms displaying different lifestyles. Some prokaryotes and algae express an isofunctional electron carrier, flavodoxin, which contains flavin mononucleotide as cofactor. Both proteins evolved in the anaerobic environment preceding the appearance of oxygenic photosynthesis. The advent of an oxygen-rich atmosphere proved detrimental to ferredoxin owing to iron limitation and oxidative damage to the iron-sulfur cluster, and many microorganisms induced flavodoxin expression to replace ferredoxin under stress conditions. Paradoxically, ferredoxin was maintained throughout the tree of life, whereas flavodoxin is absent from plants and animals. Of note is that flavodoxin expression in transgenic plants results in increased tolerance to multiple stresses and iron deficit, through mechanisms similar to those operating in microorganisms. Then, the question remains open as to why a trait that still confers plants such obvious adaptive benefits was not retained. We compare herein the properties of ferredoxin and flavodoxin, and their contrasting modes of expression in response to different environmental stimuli. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the flavodoxin gene was already absent in the algal lineages immediately preceding land plants. Geographical distribution of phototrophs shows a bias against flavodoxin-containing organisms in iron-rich coastal/freshwater habitats. Based on these observations, we propose that plants evolved from freshwater macroalgae that already lacked flavodoxin because they thrived in an iron-rich habitat with no need to back up ferredoxin functions and therefore no selective pressure to keep the flavodoxin gene. Conversely, ferredoxin retention in the plant lineage is probably related to its higher efficiency as an electron carrier, compared with flavodoxin. Several lines of evidence supporting these contentions are presented and discussed.

Evolutionary history of redox metal-binding domains across the tree of life

Oxidoreductases mediate electron transfer (i.e., redox) reactions across the tree of life and ultimately facilitate the biologically driven fluxes of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur on Earth. The core enzymes responsible for these reactions are ancient, often small in size, and highly diverse in amino acid sequence, and many require specific transition metals in their active sites. Here we reconstruct the evolution of metal-binding domains in extant oxidoreductases using a flexible network approach and permissive profile alignments based on available microbial genome data. Our results suggest there were at least 10 independent origins of redox domain families. However, we also identified multiple ancient connections between Fe2S2- (adrenodoxin-like) and heme- (cytochrome c) binding domains. Our results suggest that these two iron-containing redox families had a single common ancestor that underwent duplication and divergence. The iron-containing protein family constitutes ∼50% of all metal-containing oxidoreductases and potentially catalyzed redox reactions in the Archean oceans. Heme-binding domains seem to be derived via modular evolutionary processes that ultimately form the backbone of redox reactions in both anaerobic and aerobic respiration and photosynthesis. The empirically discovered network allows us to peer into the ancient history of microbial metabolism on our planet.

Energy, genes and evolution: introduction to an evolutionary synthesis

Life is the harnessing of chemical energy in such a way that the energy-harnessing device makes a copy of itself. No energy, no evolution. The 'modern synthesis' of the past century explained evolution in terms of genes, but this is only part of the story. While the mechanisms of natural selection are correct, and increasingly well understood, they do little to explain the actual trajectories taken by life on Earth. From a cosmic perspective-what is the probability of life elsewhere in the Universe, and what are its probable traits?-a gene-based view of evolution says almost nothing. Irresistible geological and environmental changes affected eukaryotes and prokaryotes in very different ways, ones that do not relate to specific genes or niches. Questions such as the early emergence of life, the morphological and genomic constraints on prokaryotes, the singular origin of eukaryotes, and the unique and perplexing traits shared by all eukaryotes but not found in any prokaryote, are instead illuminated by bioenergetics. If nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of energetics. This Special Issue of Philosophical Transactions examines the interplay between energy transduction and genome function in the major transitions of evolution, with implications ranging from planetary habitability to human health. We hope that these papers will contribute to a new evolutionary synthesis of energetics and genetics.