The nonoxidative conversion of nitroethane to ethylnitronate in Neurospora crassa 2-nitropropane dioxygenase is catalyzed by histidine 196.

The deprotonation of nitroethane catalyzed by Neurospora crassa 2-nitropropane dioxygenase was investigated by measuring the formation and release of ethylnitronate formed in turnover as a function of pH and through mutagenesis studies. Progress curves for the enzymatic reaction obtained by following the increase in absorbance at 228 nm over time were visibly nonlinear, requiring a logarithmic approximation of the initial reaction rates for the determination of the kinetic parameters of the enzyme. The pH dependence of the second-order rate constant k cat/ K m with nitroethane as substrate implicates the presence of a group with a p K a of 8.1 +/- 0.1 that must be unprotonated for nitronate formation. Mutagenesis studies suggest that this group is histidine 196 as evident from the inability of a H196N variant form of the enzyme to catalyze the formation of ethylnitronate from nitroethane. Replacement of histidine 196 with asparagine resulted in an approximately 15-fold increase in the k cat/ K m with ethylnitronate as compared to the wild-type, which results from the inability of the mutant enzyme to undergo nonoxidative turnover. The results presented herein are consistent with a branched catalytic mechanism for the enzyme in which the ethylnitronate intermediate formed from the H196-catalyzed deprotonation of nitroethane partitions between release from the active site and oxidative denitrification to yield acetaldehyde and nitrite.