Apr 20th, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Title
Preparation of Zn(II) Complexes Containing N2S Donor Atom Sets
Faculty Sponsor
Dr. Eric Brown
Information
The function of the metalloenzyme peptide deformylase (PDF) is to deformylate proteins that contain N-formylated methionine. Since this deformylation sequence is unique to prokaryotes, understanding the detailed mechanism of PDF may be important in the development of new antibiotics. In addition, further motivation for studying the mechanism comes from the unusual finding that the most active form of PDF is not a zinc-containing enzyme but instead an iron-containing enzyme. In order to explain the unusual metal dependency, we have prepared three new N2S ligands, which have been shown by X-ray crystallography to form mononuclear Zn(II) complexes. These N2S ligands model the cysteine and two histidine binding motif present in the active site of PDF but have unique features that are expected to result in mononuclear iron complexes. Details of the synthetic procedures, characterization data and reactivity of our Zn(II) complexes will be presented.