Engineering organisms containing artificial metalloenzymes perform unnatural biosynthesis

Synthetic biology enables microbial hosts to produce complex molecules from rare or difficult to cultivate organisms , But the structure of these molecules is limited to the structure formed by natural enzyme reaction . Artificial metalloenzymes that catalyze unnatural reactions （ArMs） Integration into the metabolic network can expand the cache of molecules produced by biosynthesis .

ad locum , Researchers from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have collaborated , An engineering microbial cell expressing heterologous biosynthesis pathway is reported , This pathway contains natural enzymes and ArM, It can produce unnatural products with high diastereoselectivity . Researchers have designed E. coli with heteroterpene biosynthesis pathway and iridium - Porphyrin complex ArM, The complex is transported to the cell through a heterologous transport system .

Researchers through evolution ArM And selecting appropriate gene induction and culture conditions to improve the diastereoselectivity and product titer of unnatural products . This work shows that , Synthetic biology and synthetic chemistry can combine natural and artificial enzymes in the whole cell to produce molecules that were previously unavailable in nature .

The research 「 Unnatural biosynthesis by an engineered microorganism with heterologously expressed natural enzymes and an artificial metalloenzyme」 entitled , On 2021 year 10 month 14 Published on 《 Nature Chemistry》.

Thesis link ： https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-021-00801-3

Relevant reports ： https://phys.org/news/2021-10-synthetic-biology-realm-unnatural.html