Structural insights into the desymmetrization of bulky 1,2-dicarbonyls through enzymatic monoreduction

Extended Scope and Understanding of Zinc-Dependent Alcohol Dehydrogenases for Reduction of Cyclic α-Diketones

Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADH) are important tools for generating chiral α-hydroxyketones. Previously, only the ADH of Thauera aromatica was known to convert cyclic α-diketones with appropriate preference. Here, we extend the spectrum of suitable enzymes by three alcohol dehydrogenases from Citrifermentans bemidjiense (CibADH), Deferrisoma camini (DecADH), and Thauera phenylacetica (ThpADH). Of these, DecADH is characterized by very high thermostability; CibADH and ThpADH convert α-halogenated cyclohexanones with increased activity. Otherwise, however, the substrate spectrum of all four ADHs is highly conserved. Structural considerations led to the conclusion that conversion of diketones requires not only the expansion of the active site into a large binding pocket, but also the circumferential modification of almost all amino acid residues that form the first shell of the binding pocket. The constellation appears to be overall highly specific for the relative positioning of the carbonyl functions and the size of the C-ring.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae NRE1 and IRC24 Encode Paralogous Benzil Oxidoreductases

Irc24p is a benzil oxidoreductase encoded on chromosome IX of Saccharomyces cerevisiae . We identified a putative paralog, Nre1p, encoded 284 bp downstream. Both proteins are small, cytoplasmic, and are 52% identical (70% similar). PANTHER and PFAM analysis of the amino acid sequences and rigid pairwise structure alignment predicted a conserved active site and Rossmann folds in both, implicating NADH or NADPH as likely cofactors. We purified hexahistidine-tagged Irc24p and Nre1p. Both proteins catalyze the reduction of the diketone benzil with similar kinetics and a preference for NADPH. This is the first demonstration of in vitro function for Nre1p.

Stairway to Stereoisomers: Engineering Short- and Medium-Chain Ketoreductases To Produce Chiral Alcohols

The short- and medium-chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamilies are responsible for most chiral alcohol production in laboratories and industries. In nature, they participate in diverse roles such as detoxification, housekeeping, secondary metabolite production, and catalysis of several chemicals with commercial and environmental significance. As a result, they are used in industries to create biopolymers, active pharmaceutical intermediates (APIs), and are also used as components of modular enzymes like polyketide synthases for fabricating bioactive molecules. Consequently, random, semi-rational and rational engineering have helped transform these enzymes into product-oriented efficient catalysts. The rise of newer synthetic chemicals and their enantiopure counterparts has proved challenging, and engineering them has been the subject of numerous studies. However, they are frequently limited to the synthesis of a single chiral alcohol. The study attempts to defragment and describe hotspots of engineering short- and medium-chain dehydrogenases/reductases for the production of chiral synthons.

Modeling-Assisted Design of Thermostable Benzaldehyde Lyases from Rhodococcus erythropolis for Continuous Production of α-Hydroxy Ketones

Enantiopure α-hydroxy ketones are important building blocks of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), which can be produced by thiamine-diphosphate-dependent lyases, such as benzaldehyde lyase. Here we report the discovery of a novel thermostable benzaldehyde lyase from Rhodococcus erythropolis R138 (ReBAL). While the overall sequence identity to the only experimentally confirmed benzaldehyde lyase from Pseudomonas fluorescens Biovar I (PfBAL) was only 65 %, comparison of a structural model of ReBAL with the crystal structure of PfBAL revealed only four divergent amino acids in the substrate binding cavity. Based on rational design, we generated two ReBAL variants, which were characterized along with the wild-type enzyme in terms of their substrate spectrum, thermostability and biocatalytic performance in the presence of different co-solvents. We found that the new enzyme variants have a significantly higher thermostability (up to 22 °C increase in T₅₀ ) and a different co-solvent-dependent activity. Using the most stable variant immobilized in packed-bed reactors via the SpyCatcher/SpyTag system, (R)-benzoin was synthesized from benzaldehyde over a period of seven days with a stable space-time-yield of 9.3 mmol ⋅ L^-1  ⋅ d^-1 . Our work expands the important class of benzaldehyde lyases and therefore contributes to the development of continuous biocatalytic processes for the production of α-hydroxy ketones and APIs.