Probing the hydrophobic pocket of the active site in the particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO) from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) by variable stereoselective alkane hydroxylation and olefin epoxidation.

pMMO from M. capsulatus (Bath) oxidizes straight-chain C1-C5 alkanes and alkenes to form their corresponding 2-alcohols and epoxides. According to experiments performed with cryptically chiral ethane and D,L-[2-(2)H(1),3-(2)H(1)]butane, the reactions proceed through the concerted O-atom insertion mechanism. However, when propene and but-1-ene are used as epoxidation substrates, the enantiomeric excesses (ees) of the enzymatic products are only 18 and 37 %, respectively. This relatively poor stereoselectivity in the enzymatic epoxidation presumably reflects low stereochemical differentiation between the re and si faces in the hydrophobic pocket of the active site. Further insights into the reaction mechanism are now provided by studies on trans-but-2-ene, which reveal only the D,L-2,3-dimethyloxirane products, and on cis-but-2-ene, which yield only the meso product. These observations indicate that the enzymatic epoxidation indeed proceeds through electrophilic syn addition. To achieve better facial selectivity, we have also used 3,3,3-trifluoroprop-1-ene as the substrate. The products obtained are 90 % (2S)-oxirane. When 1,1,1-trifluoropropane is the substrate, the hydroxylation at the 2-carbon exhibits an inverse chiral selectivity relative to that seen with normal butane, if we consider the size of the CF(3) group in the fluorinated propane to be comparable to one of the ethyl groups in butane. These experiments are beginning to delineate the factors that influence the orientations of various substrates in the hydrophobic cavity of the active site in the enzyme.