Shifting redox states of the iron center partitions CDO between crosslink formation or cysteine oxidation

•A protocol for expressing homogenously non crosslinked CDO is presented.•Resting oxidation state of homogenously non crosslinked CDO is Fe(II).•Formation of crosslink correlates with increased catalytic efficiency of CDO.•Homogenously crosslinked CDO exists in the ferric redox state.•A substrate activation mechanism for cysteine oxidation is proposed. Cysteine dioxygenase (CDO) is a mononuclear iron-dependent enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of l-cysteine to l-cysteine sulfinic acid. The mammalian CDO enzymes contain a thioether crosslink between Cys93 and Tyr157, and purified recombinant CDO exists as a mixture of the crosslinked and non crosslinked isoforms. The current study presents a method of expressing homogenously non crosslinked CDO using a cell permeative metal chelator in order to provide a comprehensive investigation of the non crosslinked and crosslinked isoforms. Electron paramagnetic resonance analysis of purified non crosslinked CDO revealed that the iron was in the EPR silent Fe(II) form. Activity of non crosslinked CDO monitoring dioxygen utilization showed a distinct lag phase, which correlated with crosslink formation. Generation of homogenously crosslinked CDO resulted in an ∼5-fold higher kcat/Km value compared to the enzyme with a heterogenous mixture of crosslinked and non crosslinked CDO isoforms. EPR analysis of homogenously crosslinked CDO revealed that this isoform exists in the Fe(III) form. These studies present a new perspective on the redox properties of the active site iron and demonstrate that a redox switch commits CDO towards either formation of the Cys93–Tyr157 crosslink or oxidation of the cysteine substrate.