The reaction mechanisms of cobalt-substituted homoprotocatechuate 2,3-dioxygenase (Co-HPCD) with electron-rich substrate homoprotocatechuate (HPCA) and electron-poor substrate 4-nitrocatechol (4NC) were investigated by quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations. Our results demonstrated that the Co-O2 adducts has doublet ground state with a Co-III-O2(center dot-) character when 4NC was used as the substrate, in good agreement with the EPR spectroscopic experiment. The reactive oxygen species is the doublet Co-III-O2(center dot down arrow) for Co-HPCD/4NC and the quartet SQ(center dot up arrow)-Co-II-O2(center dot-down arrow) species for Co-HPCD/HPCA, indicating that the substrate plays important roles in the dioxygen activation by Co-HPCD. B3LYP was found to overestimate the rate-limiting barriers in Co-HPCD. TPSSh predicts barriers of 21.5 versus 12.0 kcal/mol for Co-HPCD/4NC versus Co-HPCD/HPCA, which is consistent with the fact that the rate of the reaction is decreased when the substrate was changed from HPCA to 4NC.