How Do Copper Enzymes Hydroxylate Aliphatic Substrates? Recent Insights from the Chemistry of Model Systems

Copper at work: The aliphatic ligand hydroxylation by a copper–oxygen center has been observed for the first time on a model system of the enzyme PHM (peptidylglycine-α-hydroxylating monooxygenase). This result is put in the context of the enzymatic mechanism, which presumably involves a high-valent copper oxo unit (violet-red) that hydroxylates the substrate (cyan).