SOD activity

In the example described above, studies of a metal-substituted derivative helped in the evaluation of mechanistic possibilities for the enzymatic reaction. In addition, studies of such derivatives have provided useful information about the environment of the metal-ion binding sites. For example, metal-ion-substituted derivatives of CuZnSOD have been prepared with Cu II, CuI, ZnII, Ag I, Ni ll , or COli bound to the native copper site, and with Znll , CUll, CuI, COli, HgII, Cdll , Ni ll, or Ag I bound to the native zinc site. 100, 101, 117 The SOD activities of these derivatives are interesting; only those derivatives with copper in the copper site have a high degree of SOD activity, whereas the nature of the metal ion in the zinc site or even its absence has little or no effect.