Metalloenzymes for Fatty Acid-Derived Hydrocarbon Biosynthesis: Nature's Cryptic Catalysts

Iqbal, T and Chakraborty, S and Murugan, S and Das, D (2022) Metalloenzymes for Fatty Acid-Derived Hydrocarbon Biosynthesis: Nature's Cryptic Catalysts. In: Chemistry - An Asian Journal .

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Abstract

Waning resources, massive energy consumption, ever-deepening global warming crisis, and climate change have raised grave concerns regarding continued dependence on fossil fuels as the predominant source of energy and generated tremendous interest for developing biofuels, which are renewable. Hydrocarbon-based ′drop-in′ biofuels can be a proper substitute for fossil fuels such as gasoline or jet fuel. In Nature, hydrocarbons are produced by diverse organisms such as insects, plants, bacteria, and cyanobacteria. Metalloenzymes play a crucial role in hydrocarbons biosynthesis, and the past decade has witnessed discoveries of a number of metalloenzymes catalyzing hydrocarbon biosynthesis from fatty acids and their derivatives employing unprecedented mechanisms. These discoveries elucidated the enigma related to the divergent chemistries involved in the catalytic mechanisms of these metalloenzymes. There is substantial diversity in the structure, mode of action, cofactor requirement, and substrate scope among these metalloenzymes. Detailed structural analysis along with mutational studies of some of these enzymes have contributed significantly to identifying the key amino acid residues that dictate substrate specificity and catalytic intricacy. In this Review, we discuss the metalloenzymes that catalyze fatty acid-derived hydrocarbon biosynthesis in various organisms, emphasizing the active site architecture, catalytic mechanism, cofactor requirements, and substrate specificity of these enzymes. Understanding such details is essential for successfully implementing these enzymes in emergent biofuel research through protein engineering and synthetic biology approaches. © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Chemistry - An Asian Journal
Publisher:	John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Keywords:	Biochemistry; Biofuels; Biosynthesis; Carboxylation; Catalysis; Fatty acids; Fossil fuels; Global warming; Hydrocarbons; Metabolic engineering; Metals; Reaction intermediates; Synthetic biology, Catalytic mechanisms; Cofactors; Diverse organisms; Energy-consumption; Enzyme mechanism; Metalloenzymes; Plant bacteria; Sources of energy; Substrate specificity; ]+ catalyst, Enzymes
Department/Centre:	Division of Chemical Sciences > Inorganic & Physical Chemistry
Date Deposited:	18 May 2022 09:02
Last Modified:	18 May 2022 09:02
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/71835

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