Re-engineering a tiny enzyme

Gerrit Poelarends was looking for an enzyme that would make a key step in the production of important pharmaceuticals greener and much more efficient. It led him to a tiny protein called 4-oxalocrotonate tautomerase. Over a period of five years, he managed to map the possibilities it offers and re-engineer it to perform the required step. The results were published in Nature Communicationson 8 March.

Using mutability landscapes of a promiscuous tautomerase to guide the engineering of enantioselective Michaelases

Reference: Jan-Ytzen van der Meer, Harshwardhan Poddar, Bert-Jan Baas, Yufeng Miao, Mehran Rahimi, Andreas Kunzendorf, Ronald van Merkerk, Pieter G. Tepper, Edzard M. Geertsema, Andy-Mark W. H. Thunnissen, Wim J. Quax & Gerrit J. Poelarends

Nature Communications, 8 March, DOI 10.1038/NCOMMS10911.