Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Resonance Raman Studies Of Oxygenated Forms Of Myoglobin And Cyp2b4 And Their Mutants, Ying Wang

Dissertations (1934 -)

Important oxidative heme enzymes use hydrogen peroxide or activate molecular oxygen to generate highly reactive peroxo-, hydroperoxo- and feryl intermediates resulting from heterolytic O-O bond cleavage. Members of the cytochrome P450 superfamily catalyze difficult chemical transformations, including hydroxylations and C-C bond cleavage reactions. In mammals, these enzymes function to reliably produce important steroids with the required high degree of structural precision. On the other hand, certain other mammalian P450s serve a different role, efficiently metabolizing xenobiotics, including pharmaceuticals and environmental pollutants. Though so important, the precise mechanisms involved in such transformations are incompletely understood, because of difficulties in structurally characterizing …