Structure of a laccase-mediated product of coupling of 2,4-diamino-6-nitrotoluene to guaiacol, a model for coupling of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene metabolites to a humic organic soil matrix

This work presents laccase-mediated model reactions for coupling of reduced 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) metabolites to an organic soil matrix. The structure of an isolated coupling product of 2,4-diamino-6-nitrotoluene (2,4-DANT) to guaiacol as humic constituent was determined, Among several structures, the compound was identified conclusively to be the trinuclear coupling product 5-(2-amino-3-methyl-4-nitroanilino)-3,3' dimethoxy-4,4'-diphenoquinone. The compound has a weight of 409 g mol(-1) and may serve as a model reaction for the biogenic formation of bound residues in soil from TNT by coupling aminotoluenes (reduced TNT metabolites) to humic constituents, A linear correlation of the substrate consumption to the enzyme activity was detected. Based on this observation, the described reaction of 2,4-DANT coupling to guaiacol may be used for determination of laccase activity since the reaction was not inhibited by other compounds of culture supernatants. We propose a two-step mechanism for the coupling reaction because 2,4-DANT was not transformed by laccases in the absence of guaiacol and guaiacol oxidation was independent of the presence of 2,4-DANT, The first reaction step is a laccase-mediated dimerization of two guaiacol monomers with subsequent oxidation to a diphenoquinone. The second step is the nucleophilic addition of 2,4-DANT to the ortho position of the carbonyl group of the diphenoquinone structure.