Discovery of a novel (R)-selective bacterial hydroxynitrile lyase from Acidobacterium capsulatum.

Hydroxynitrile lyases (HNLs) are powerful carbon-carbon bond forming enzymes. The reverse of their natural reaction - the stereoselective addition of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) to carbonyls - yields chiral cyanohydrins, versatile building blocks for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. Recently, bacterial HNLs have been discovered, which represent a completely new type: HNLs with a cupin fold.

Characterization of two bacterial hydroxynitrile lyases with high similarity to cupin superfamily proteins.

Hydroxynitrile lyases (HNLs) catalyze the cleavage of cyanohydrins. In the reverse reaction, they catalyze the formation of carbon-carbon bonds by enantioselective condensation of hydrocyanic acid with carbonyls. In this study, we describe two proteins from endophytic bacteria that display activity in the cleavage and the synthesis reaction of (R)-mandelonitrile with up to 74% conversion of benzaldehyde (enantiopreference ee 89%).

Improvement of a stereoselective biocatalytic synthesis by substrate and enzyme engineering: 2-hydroxy-(4'-oxocyclohexyl)acetonitrile as the model.

Even if biocatalysis is finding increasing application, it still has to gain widespread use in synthetic chemistry. Reasons for this are limitations that enzymes have with regard to substrate range, reaction scope, and insufficient selectivity with unnatural compounds. These shortcomings can be challenged by enzyme and/or substrate engineering, which are employed to alter substrate specificity and enhance the enzyme selectivity toward unnatural substrates.