Fe(II) and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases for natural product synthesis: molecular insights into reaction diversity.

Covering: up to 2024Fe(II) and 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (Fe/2OG DOs) are a superfamily of enzymes that play important roles in a variety of catalytic reactions, including hydroxylation, ring formation, ring reconstruction, desaturation, and demethylation. Each member of this family has similarities in their overall structure, but they have varying specific differences, making Fe/2OG DOs attractive for catalytic diversity. With the advancement of current research, more Fe/2OG DOs have been discovered, and their catalytic scope has been further broadened; however, apart from hydroxylation, many reaction mechanisms have not been accurately demonstrated, and there is a lack of a systematic understanding of their molecular basis.

Entering an Era of Protein Structuromics.

Sequence determines the structure, and the structure in turn determines the function, are the fundamental principles of protein chemistry. In the genomics era, the paradigm of mining protein functionality and evolutionary insights through sequence analysis has led to remarkable achievements. However, protein sequences often mutate faster than their structural counterparts during evolution.

Regulating the stereoselectivity of medium-chain dehydrogenase/reductase by creating an additional active pocket accommodating prochiral heterocyclic ketones.

Medium chain dehydrogenase/reductase (MDR) is a robust catalyst for the asymmetric synthesis of chiral heterocyclic alcohols, essential building blocks in pharmaceuticals. However, the regulatory mechanism of stereoselective complementary reduction of heterocyclic ketones by carbonyl reductase (CR) is unclear. Structure-guided creation of an additional substrate-binding active pocket inversed the stereoselectivity of SpCR from .

Evolutionary coupling-inspired engineering of alcohol dehydrogenase reveals the influence of distant sites on its catalytic efficiency for stereospecific synthesis of chiral alcohols.

Alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) has attracted much attention due to its ability to catalyze the synthesis of important chiral alcohol pharmaceutical intermediates with high stereoselectivity. ADH protein engineering efforts have generally focused on reshaping the substrate-binding pocket. However, distant sites outside the pocket may also affect its activity, although the underlying molecular mechanism remains unclear.

Computer-aided understanding and engineering of enzymatic selectivity.

Enzymes offering chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity enable the asymmetric synthesis of high-value chiral molecules. Unfortunately, the drawback that naturally occurring enzymes are often inefficient or have undesired selectivity toward non-native substrates hinders the broadening of biocatalytic applications. To match the demands of specific selectivity in asymmetric synthesis, biochemists have implemented various computer-aided strategies in understanding and engineering enzymatic selectivity, diversifying the available repository of artificial enzymes.

Computational design of noncanonical amino acid-based thioether staples at N/C-terminal domains of multi-modular pullulanase for thermostabilization in enzyme catalysis.

Enzyme thermostabilization is considered a critical and often obligatory step in biosynthesis, because thermostability is a significant property of enzymes that can be used to evaluate their feasibility for industrial applications. However, conventional strategies for thermostabilizing enzymes generally introduce non-covalent interactions and/or natural covalent bonds caused by natural amino acid substitutions, and the trade-off between the activity and stability of enzymes remains a challenge. Here, we developed a computationally guided strategy for constructing thioether staples by incorporating noncanonical amino acid (ncAA) into the more flexible N/C-terminal domains of the multi-modular pullulanase from (BtPul) to enhance its thermostability.

Highly selective synthesis of D-amino acids via stereoinversion of corresponding counterpart by an in vivo cascade cell factory.

Background: D-Amino acids are increasingly used as building blocks to produce pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals. However, establishing a universal biocatalyst for the general synthesis of D-amino acids from cheap and readily available precursors with few by-products is challenging. In this study, we developed an efficient in vivo biocatalysis system for the synthesis of D-amino acids from L-amino acids by the co-expression of membrane-associated L-amino acid deaminase obtained from Proteus mirabilis (LAAD), meso-diaminopimelate dehydrogenases obtained from Symbiobacterium thermophilum (DAPDH), and formate dehydrogenase obtained from Burkholderia stabilis (FDH), in recombinant Escherichia coli.

An auto-inducible expression and high cell density fermentation of Beefy Meaty Peptide with Bacillus subtilis.

Currently, some cases about the expression of flavor peptides with microorganisms were reported owing to the obvious advantages of biological expression over traditional methods. However, beefy meaty peptide (BMP), the focus of umami peptides, has neither been concerned in its safe expression nor its overproduction in fermenter. In this study, multi-copy BMP (8BMP) was successfully auto-inducibly expressed and efficiently produced in Bacillus subtilis 168.

Activity Enhancement Based on the Chemical Equilibrium of Multiple-Subunit Nitrile Hydratase from Bordetella petrii.

The maturation mechanism of nitrile hydratase (NHase) of Pseudomonas putida NRRL-18668 was discovered and named as "self-subunit swapping." Since the NHase of Bordetella petrii DSM 12804 is similar to that of P. putida, the NHase maturation of B.

The Stability Enhancement of Nitrile Hydratase from Bordetella petrii by Swapping the C-terminal Domain of β subunit.

The thermal stability of most nitrile hydratases (NHase) is poor, which has been enhanced to some extent by molecular modifications in several specific regions of the C-terminal domain (C-domain) of β subunit of NHase. Since the C-domain could be present as a naturally separate domain in a few NHases, the whole C-domain is proposed to be related to the NHase stability. The chimeric NHase (SBpNHase) from the thermal-sensitive BpNHase (NHase from Bordetella petrii) and the relatively thermal-stable PtNHase (NHase from Pseudonocardia thermophila) was constructed by swapping the corresponding C-domains.