Tautomerism in Fuscin - A DFT Treatment

Fuscin, a natural product having various functionalities, may exhibit 1,3- and 1,5-proton tautomerism, as well as valence tautomerism via its 1,5-proton tautomer. All those possible forms are investigated within the realm of density functional theory with the constraints of B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) level. NICS(0) calculation has been performed for the valence tautomer which possesses a benzenoid ring. The tautomers are found to be stable structures but the valence tautomer is the least likely one. Some QSAR, quantum chemical and spectral properties are obtained and discussed.

Valence tautomerism in synthetic models of cytochrome P450

CytP450s have a cysteine-bound heme cofactor that, in its as-isolated resting (oxidized) form, can be conclusively described as a ferric thiolate species. Unlike the native enzyme, most synthetic thiolate-bound ferric porphyrins are unstable in air unless the axial thiolate ligand is sterically protected. Spectroscopic investigations on a series of synthetic mimics of cytP450 indicate that a thiolate-bound ferric porphyrin coexists in organic solutions at room temperature (RT) with a thiyl-radical bound ferrous porphyrin, i.e., its valence tautomer. The ferric thiolate state is favored by greater enthalpy and is air stable. The ferrous thiyl state is favored by entropy, populates at RT, and degrades in air. These ground states can be reversibly interchanged at RT by the addition or removal of water to the apolar medium. It is concluded that hydrogen bonding and local electrostatics protect the resting oxidized cytP450 active site from degradation in air by stabilizing the ferric thiolate ground state in contrast to its synthetic analogs.

ELECTRON CORRELATION EFFECTS IN BIOLOGICAL MOLECULES

Allosteric (conformation changing) proteins with transition metal atoms are at the heart of much important biological function (e.g., myoglobin hemoglobin used for storing and transporting oxygen in the bloodstream). In the case of myoglobin and hemoglobin, oxygen ligation to the iron center induces a spin crossover (high to low) coupled to a structural change; apart from the role of Hunds' exchange in the spin crossover, electron interaction effects have been ignored. We argue that the spin crossover/structure change observed in the similarly structured but far simpler cobalt valence tautomer molecules1 necessitates an inclusion of underscreened Kondo like correlations for a complete description of the energetics of the transition and dynamics, e.g., for x-ray absorption data. We carry this study out with Varma-Yafet-Gunnarsson-Schonhammer wave functions, which, in chemistry language, are basis set restricted configuration interaction in character. We briefly review the applicability of such wave functions to the description of the putative Kondo molecules cerocene (Ce[(CH)5]2) and ytterbocene bipyridine (Yb[(CH)5]2(bipy)) and to the problem of electron transfer in biological molecules and organic conductors, where anomalous long range tunneling may occur. Research supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Research.