Optimal electrostatic interactions between substrate and protein are essential for radical chemistry in ornithine 4,5-aminomutase.

Ornithine 4,5-aminomutase (OAM) from Clostridium sticklandii is an adenosylcobalamin (AdoCbl) and pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzyme that catalyzes a 1,2-amino shift, interconverting d-ornithine and 2S, 4R-diaminopentanoate. The reaction occurs via a radical-based mechanism whereby a PLP-bound substrate radical undergoes intramolecular isomerization via an azacyclopropylcarbinyl radical intermediate. Herein, we investigated the catalytic role of active site residues that form non-covalent interactions with PLP and/or substrate, d-ornithine. Kinetic analyses revealed that residues that form salt bridges to the α-carboxylate (R297) or the α-amine (E81) of d-ornithine are most critical for OAM activity as conservative substitutions of these residues results in a 300-600-fold reduction in catalytic turnover and a more pronounced 1000- to 14,000-fold decrease in catalytic efficiency. In contrast, mutating residues that solely interact with the PLP cofactor led to more modest decreases (10-60-fold) in k