Substrate Ambiguity and Catalytic Promiscuity Within a Bacterial Proteome Probed by an Easy Phenotypic Screen for Aldehydes

Enzyme assays

Enzyme assays are analytical tools to visualize enzyme activities. In recent years a large variety of enzyme assays have been developed to assist the discovery and optimization of industrial enzymes, in particular for "white biotechnology" where selective enzymes are used with great success for economically viable, mild and environmentally benign production processes. The present article highlights the aspects of fluorogenic and chromogenic substrates, sensors, and enzyme fingerprinting, which are our particular areas of interest.

Protein Immobilization Strategies for Protein Biochips

In the past few years, protein biochips have emerged as promising proteomic and diagnostic tools for obtaining information about protein functions and interactions. Important technological innovations have been made. However, considerable development is still required, especially regarding protein immobilization, in order to fully realize the potential of protein biochips. In fact, protein immobilization is the key to the success of microarray technology. Proteins need to be immobilized onto surfaces with high density in order to allow the usage of small amount of sample solution. Nonspecific protein adsorption needs to be avoided or at least minimized in order to improve detection performances. Moreover, full retention of protein conformation and activity is a challenging task to be accomplished. Although a large number of review papers on protein biochips have been published in recent years, few have focused on protein immobilization technology. In this review, current protein immobilization strategies, including physical, covalent, and bioaffinity immobilization for the fabrication of protein biochips, are described. Particular consideration has been given to oriented immobilization, also referred to as site-specific immobilization, which is believed will improve homogeneous surface covering and accessibility of the active site.