Boron Catalysis in a Designer Enzyme

27 September 2023, Version 1
This content is a preprint and has not undergone peer review at the time of posting.

Abstract

The creation of enzymes containing non-biological functionalities with activation modes outside of Nature’s canon paves the way towards fully programmable biocatalysis. Here, we present a fully genetically encoded boronic acid containing designer enzyme with organocatalytic reactivity not achievable with natural or engineered biocatalysts. This boron enzyme catalyzes the kinetic resolution of hydroxyketones by oxime formation where crucial interactions with the protein scaffold assist in the catalysis. A directed evolution campaign lead to a variant with natural enzyme like enantioselectivities for a number of different substrates. The unique activation mode of the boron enzyme was studied via X-ray crystallography, high resolution mass spectrometry and 11B NMR spectroscopy and opens up the possibility for a new class of boron dependent biocatalysts.

Keywords

Designer enzymes
boron catalysis
non-canonical amino acids

Supplementary materials

Title
Description
Actions
Title
Supporting Information
Description
Additional Information on the Boron Catalysis with a Designer Enzyme and Procedures and Supplementary Data
Actions

Comments

Comments are not moderated before they are posted, but they can be removed by the site moderators if they are found to be in contravention of our Commenting Policy [opens in a new tab] - please read this policy before you post. Comments should be used for scholarly discussion of the content in question. You can find more information about how to use the commenting feature here [opens in a new tab] .
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy [opens in a new tab] and Terms of Service [opens in a new tab] apply.