Peroxygenases en route to becoming dream catalysts. What are the opportunities and challenges?

Peroxygenases are promising catalysts for preparative oxyfunctionalization chemistry as they combine the versatility of P450 monooxygenases with simplicity of cofactor-independent enzymes. Though many interesting applications have been reported, today ‘we have only scratched the surface’ and significant efforts are necessary to solve issues related to selectivity of the wild type enzymes and low product titers. For this, further elucidation of the vast natural diversity as well as protein and reaction engineering approaches are discussed.BT/Biocatalysi

Deep eutectic solvents as performance additives in biphasic reactions

Deep eutectic solvents act as surfactants in biphasic (hydrophobic/aqueous) reaction mixtures enabling higher interfacial surface areas at lower mechanical stress as compared to simple emulsions. Exploiting this effect the rate of a chemoenzymatic epoxidation reaction was increased more than six-fold.BT/Biocatalysi

A novel unspecific peroxygenase from Agaricus bisporus var. bisporus for biocatalytic oxyfunctionalisation reactions

Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs) represent an emerging class of catalysts for the selective oxyfunctionalisation of C–H- and C = C groups. Until now, only a few UPOs have been characterised. In this study, we report a new peroxygenase identified from the Unspecific Peroxygenase Database. The UPO from Agaricus bisporus var. bisporus (AbvbUPO) has been heterologously expressed in Aspergillus niger and initially characterised with respect to its basic biochemical features. Furthermore, its catalytic properties were evaluated with enzymatic cascade reactions of choline oxidase (AnChOx) and AbvbUPO, which the AnChOx provided H2O2 necessary via reductive activation of oxygen in situ. Three types of oxyfunctionalizations, such as hydroxylation of ethylbenzene, epoxidations of styrene and cyclohexene, sulfoxidations of methyl phenyl sulfide and phenyl vinyl sulfide, were successfully achieved. We also investigated the activity of AbvbUPO on fatty acids in some more detail. The experimental results show that Under the above conditions, AbvbUPO had the higher activity for cyclohexene epoxidation and sulfonation of sulfide substrates. The concentration of epoxy cyclohexane was 2.91 mM, and the concentration of methyl phenyl sulfoxide was 3.69 mM. The regioselectivity of AbvbUPO was ω-1 bonds position of linear saturated fatty acid. All in all, AbvbUPO exhibits some interesting differences which may put the basis for further understanding of the factors determining peroxygenase selectivity.BT/Biocatalysi

A Novel Unspecific Peroxygenase from Galatian marginata for Biocatalytic Oxyfunctionalization Reactions

Unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs, EC 1.11.2.1) are promising oxyfunctionalization catalysts because of their unique stereoselectivity. However, so far only a few UPOs have been reported. In this study, gene mining was used to identify a gene from Galerina marginata that coded for a novel UPO (GmaUPO). GmaUPO was expressed in Pichia pastoris X-33 by scale-up fermentation (the UPO activity of the culture supernatant was 118 U/L). GmaUPO exhibited a molecular weight of 40 kDa and exhibited highest activity at 35°C and pH 9, respectively. Furthermore, GmaUPO was demonstrated to catalyze the epoxidation, sulfoxidation, and hydroxylation of common substrates, particularly fatty acids such as tridecanoic acid. The molecular basis for GmaUPO regioselectivity for fatty acid hydroxylation was explored by molecular modelling. The regioselectivity was mostly governed by the architecture of the enzyme's active site.BT/Biocatalysi

Chemoenzymatic Halocyclization of γ,δ-Unsaturated Carboxylic Acids and Alcohols

A chemoenzymatic method for the halocyclization of unsaturated alcohols and acids by using the robust V-dependent chloroperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis (CiVCPO) as catalyst has been developed for the in situ generation of hypohalites. A broad range of halolactones and cyclic haloethers are formed with excellent performance of the biocatalyst.BT/Biocatalysi

How To Break the Janus Effect of H ₂ O ₂ in Biocatalysis? Understanding Inactivation Mechanisms To Generate more Robust Enzymes

H 2 O 2 , is an attractive oxidant for synthetic chemistry, especially if activated as percarboxylic acid. H 2 O 2 , however, is also a potent inactivator of enzymes. Protein engineering efforts to improve enzyme resistance against H 2 O 2 in the past have mostly focused on tedious probabilistic directed evolution approaches. Here we demonstrate that a rational approach combining multiscale MD simulations and Born-Oppenheimer ab initio QM/MM MD simulations is an efficient approach to rapidly identify improved enzyme variants. Thus, the lipase from Penicillium camembertii was redesigned with a single mutation (I260R), leading to drastic improvements in H 2 O 2 resistance while maintaining the catalytic activity. Also the extension of this methodology to other enzymes is demonstrated. Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.BT/Biocatalysi