Abstract
The structure of ClO4 and NO3 adducts of cobalt(II) substituted bovine carbonic anhydrase have been investigated through 1D NOE and 2D 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. For the first time two-dimensional NMR techniques are applied to paramagnetic metalloproteins other than iron-containing proteins. Several active site signals have been assigned to specific protons on the grounds of their scalar and dipolar connectivities and T1 values. The experimental dipolar shifts for the protons belonging to noncoordinated residues have allowed the identification of a plausible orientation of the magnetic susceptibility tensor around the cobalt ion as well as of the magnitude and the anisotropy of the principal susceptibility values. In turn, a few more signals have been tentatively assigned on the grounds of their predicted dipolar shifts. The two inhibitor derivatives have a very similar orientation but a different magnitude of the chi tensor, and the protein structure around the active site is highly maintained. The results encourage a more extensive use of the two-dimensional techniques for obtaining selective structural information on the active site of metalloenzymes. With this information at hand, comparisons within homologous series of adducts with various inhibitors and/or mutants of the same enzyme of known structure should be possible using limited sets of NMR data.