Mechanism of the reaction catalyzed by the formate-activating enzyme from Micrococcus aerogenes.

Equations 2 and 3, came from investigations with a highly purified enzyme from Micrococcus aerogenes (6), and from experiments with the pigeon liver enzyme (7-9). On the other hand, data (10, 11) obtained with a formate-activating enzyme from Clostridium cylindrosporum have led to an alternate interpretation, namely that Reaction 1 goes via a concerted mechanism without the formation of any detectable intermediates. The present communication provides further information defining the over-all reaction (Equation 1) catalyzed by the M. aerogenes enzyme. A two-step mechanism is presented which modifies Equations 2 and 3 to include the role of the enzyme.