Hybrid-DFT study on electronic structures of the active site of sweet potato purple acid phosphatase: the origin of stronger antiferromagnetic couplings than other purple acid phosphatases.

The electronic structure and magnetic interactions of the active site of sweet potato purple acid phosphatase (PAP) were investigated by using UHF, pure DFT (UBLYP), and hybrid DFT methods (UB3LYP and UB2LYP). PAP catalyzes the hydrolysis of a phosphate ester under acidic conditions and contains a binuclear metal center. Sweet potato PAP provides stronger antiferromagnetic coupling than other PAPs. UB3LYP showed reasonably good agreement with the experimental magnetic coupling, indicating that this stronger antiferromagnetic coupling is caused by a mu-oxo bridge in the Fe(III)-Mn(II) binuclear metal center, which is the origin of the asymmetric spin delocalization. The type of bridging ligand is essential for the reaction mechanism, because the bridging ligand is suggested to function as a nucleophile in the reaction. Analyses of the natural orbital and spin density distributions implied the asymmetric spin delocalization on the bridging oxygen. The mechanism and the pathway of the antiferromagnetic coupling between Fe(III) and Mn(II) were discussed, using chemical indices introduced with the occupation numbers of singly occupied natural orbitals.