{"id":144763,"date":"2024-05-31T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T05:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=144763"},"modified":"2024-05-24T16:39:31","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T14:39:31","slug":"a-bionanomachine-for-green-chemistry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/a-bionanomachine-for-green-chemistry\/","title":{"rendered":"A bionanomachine for green chemistry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time precisely characterised the enzyme styrene oxide isomerase, which can be used to produce valuable chemicals and drug precursors in an environmentally friendly manner. The study appears today in the journal Nature Chemistry<\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Xiaodan
Xiaodan Li and Richard Kammerer have characterised an enzyme for the first time that could become an important tool for the circular economy. The monitor shows a schematic representation of the key part of the active centre of this enzyme.
\u00a9 Paul Scherrer Institute\/Markus Fischer<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Enzymes are powerful biomolecules that can be used to produce many substances at ambient conditions. They enable \u201cgreen\u201d chemistry, which reduces environmental pollution resulting from processes used in synthetic chemistry. One such tool from nature has now been characterised in detail by PSI researchers: the enzyme styrene oxide isomerase. It is the biological version of the Meinwald reaction, an important chemical reaction in organic chemistry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe enzyme, discovered decades ago, is made by bacteria,\u201d says Richard Kammerer of PSI\u2019s Biomolecular Research Laboratory<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His colleague Xiaodan Li <\/strong>adds: \u201cBut because the way it functions was not known, its practical application has been limited up to now.\u201d The two researchers and their team have elucidated the structure of the enzyme as well as the way it works.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Simple mechanism for a complicated reaction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Microorganisms possess specific enzymes with which they can, for example, break down harmful substances and use them as nutrients. Styrene oxide isomerase is one of these. Together with two other enzymes, it enables certain environmental bacteria to grow on the hydrocarbon styrene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The styrene oxide isomerase catalyses a very specific step in the reaction: it splits a three-membered ring in the styrene oxide consisting of one oxygen and two carbon atoms, a so-called epoxide. Thereby the enzyme is highly specific and creates only one product. It is also capable of converting a number of additional substances, producing important precursors for medical applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One particular advantage has to do with the fact that in many chemical reactions, both an image and a mirror image of a chemical compound are formed, which may have completely different biological effects. But this enzyme specifically creates only one of the two products. In chemistry this property is called stereospecificity \u2013 it is particularly important for the generation of precursor molecules for drugs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe enzyme is an impressive example of how nature makes chemical reactions possible in a simple and ingenious way,\u201d Xiaodan Li<\/strong> says.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Versatile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the course of their investigations, which they conducted in part at the Swiss Light Source SLS, the PSI researchers discovered the enzyme\u2019s secret: an iron-containing group in its interior, similar to the iron-containing pigment in our red blood cells. This haem group binds the epoxide ring, and that\u2019s how it makes the reaction so simple and efficient. Other parts of the investigations were carried out by the group of Volodymyr Korkhov, also from the PSI Laboratory for Biomolecular Research and Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at ETH Zurich, using cryo-electron microscopy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Xiaodan Li and Richard Kammerer feel certain that the enzyme will prove extremely useful in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIt is so far the only bacterial enzyme known to catalyse the Meinwald reaction,\u201d Richard Kammerer <\/strong>emphasises. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

With the enzyme\u2019s help, industry could produce precursors for drugs and important chemicals under energy-saving and environmentally friendly conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Xiaodan Li <\/strong>adds: \u201cThe enzyme could potentially be altered so that it can produce a great many new substances.\u201d In addition, the enzyme is very stable and thus is suitable for large-scale industrial applications. \u201cIt will certainly become a new, important tool for the circular economy and green chemistry,\u201d the PSI researchers are convinced.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Original publication<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Structural basis of the Meinwald rearrangement catalyzed by styrene oxide isomerase<\/a><\/strong>
Basavraj Khanppnavar, Joel P.S. Choo, Peter-Leon Hagedoorn, Grigory Smolentsev, Sa\u0161a \u0160tefani\u0107, Selvapravin Kumaran, Dirk Tischler, Fritz Winkler, Volodymyr M. Korkhov, Zhi Li, Richard A. Kammerer und Xiaodan Li; Nature Chemistry, 14.05.2024 (online); DOI: 10.1038\/s41557-024-01523-y<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contacts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Xiaodan Li<\/a>
Biomolecular Research Laboratory
Tel.:\u00a0+41 56 310 44 69<\/a>
e-mail:\u00a0xiao.li@psi.ch<\/a>\u00a0[German, English]

PD Dr. Richard Alfred Kammerer<\/a>
Biomolecular Research Laboratory
Tel.:\u00a0+41 56 310 47 65<\/a>
e-mail:\u00a0richard.kammerer@psi.ch<\/a>\u00a0[German, English]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Dr. Volodymyr Korkhov<\/a>
Laboratory for Biomolecular Research\u00a0
Tel.:\u00a0+41 56 310 28 42<\/a>
e-mail:\u00a0volodymyr.korkhov@psi.ch<\/a>\u00a0[English]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About PSI<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI develops, builds and operates large, complex research facilities and makes them available to the national and international research community. The institute’s own key research priorities are in the fields of\u00a0future technologies, energy and climate, health innovation and fundamentals of nature.\u00a0PSI is committed to the training of future generations. Therefore about one quarter of our staff are post-docs, post-graduates or apprentices. Altogether PSI employs 2200 people, thus being the largest research institute in Switzerland. The annual budget amounts to approximately CHF 420 million. PSI is part of the ETH Domain, with the other members being the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology, ETH Zurich and EPFL Lausanne, as well as Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology), Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology) and WSL (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research).\u00a0(Last updated in June 2023)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have for the first time precisely characterised the enzyme styrene oxide isomerase, which can be used to produce valuable chemicals and drug precursors in an environmentally friendly manner. The study appears today in the journal Nature Chemistry. Enzymes are powerful biomolecules that can be used to produce many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":144766,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The scientists feel certain that the enzyme will prove extremely useful in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[14120,10416,5840,10408],"supplier":[6678,959],"class_list":["post-144763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-catalysis","tag-circulareconomy","tag-enzymes","tag-greenchemistry","supplier-nature-chemistry","supplier-paul-scherrer-institut-psi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144763"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=144763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}