The Importance of Stereochemically Active Lone Pairs For Influencing Pb II and As III Protein Binding

The toxicity of heavy metals, which is associated with the high affinity of the metals for thiolate rich proteins, constitutes a problem worldwide. However, despite this tremendous toxicity concern, the binding mode of As III and Pb II to proteins is poorly understood. To clarify the requirements for toxic metal binding to metalloregulatory sensor proteins such as As III in ArsR/ArsD and Pb II in PbrR or replacing Zn II in δ‐aminolevulinc acid dehydratase (ALAD), we have employed computational and experimental methods examining the binding of these heavy metals to designed peptide models. The computational results show that the mode of coordination of As III and Pb II is greatly influenced by the steric bulk within the second coordination environment of the metal. The proposed basis of this selectivity is the large size of the ion and, most important, the influence of the stereochemically active lone pair in hemidirected complexes of the metal ion as being crucial. The experimental data show that switching a bulky leucine layer above the metal binding site by a smaller alanine residue enhances the Pb II binding affinity by a factor of five, thus supporting experimentally the hypothesis of lone pair steric hindrance. These complementary approaches demonstrate the potential importance of a stereochemically active lone pair as a metal recognition mode in proteins and, specifically, how the second coordination sphere environment affects the affinity and selectivity of protein targets by certain toxic ions.