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The non-heme Fe( ii ) and 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) dependent ethylene-forming enzyme (EFE) catalyzes both ethylene generation and l -Arg hydroxylation. Despite experimental and computational progress in understanding the mechanism of EFE, no EFE variant has been optimized for ethylene production while simultaneously reducing the l -Arg hydroxylation activity. In this study, we show that the two l -Arg binding conformations, associated with different reactivity preferences in EFE, lead to differences in the intrinsic electric field (IntEF) of EFE. Importantly, we suggest that applying an external electric field (ExtEF) along the Fe–O bond in the EFE·Fe( iii )·OO − ˙·2OG· l -Arg complex can switch the EFE reactivity between l -Arg hydroxylation and ethylene generation. Furthermore, we explored how applying an ExtEF alters the geometry, electronic structure of the key reaction intermediates, and the individual energy contributions of second coordination sphere (SCS) residues through combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations. Experimentally generated variant forms of EFE with alanine substituted for SCS residues responsible for stabilizing the key intermediates in the two reactions of EFE led to changes in enzyme activity, thus demonstrating the key role of these residues. Overall, the results of applying an ExtEF indicate that making the IntEF of EFE less negative and stabilizing the off-line binding of 2OG is predicted to increase ethylene generation while reducing l -Arg hydroxylation. 

Abstract Arginine methylation is an important mechanism of epigenetic regulation. Some Fe(II) and 2‐oxoglutarate dependent Jumonji‐C (JmjC) Nϵ‐methyl lysine histone demethylases also have N‐methyl arginine demethylase activity. We report combined molecular dynamic (MD) and Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical (QM/MM) studies on the mechanism of N‐methyl arginine demethylation by human KDM4E and compare the results with those reported for N‐methyl lysine demethylation by KDM4A. At the KDM4E active site, Glu191, Asn291, and Ser197 form a conserved scaffold that restricts substrate dynamics; substrate binding is also mediated by an out of active site hydrogen‐bond between the substrate Ser1 and Tyr178. The calculations imply that in either C−H or N−H potential bond cleaving pathways for hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) during N‐methyl arginine demethylation, electron transfer occurs via a σ‐channel; the transition state for the N−H pathway is ∼10 kcal/mol higher than for the C−H pathway due to the higher bond dissociation energy of the N−H bond. The results of applying external electric fields (EEFs) reveal EEFs with positive field strengths parallel to the Fe=O bond have a significant barrier‐lowering effect on the C−H pathway, by contrast, such EEFs inhibit the N−H activation rate. The overall results imply that KDM4 catalyzed N‐methyl arginine demethylation and N‐methyl lysine demethylation occur via similar C−H abstraction and rebound mechanisms leading to methyl group hydroxylation, though there are differences in the interactions leading to productive binding of intermediates.