‘Microorganisms are the best chemists in the world. They biosynthesize highly complex molecules that are applied as antibiotics, they break down plastics, and they assimilate the greenhouse gases methane and carbon dioxide. Therefore, detailed knowledge about the structure and function of their enzymes is indispensable to understand biochemical processes in the environment and to develop innovative solutions for sustainable biotechnology. I will present three case studies that combine biochemistry and structural biology, including X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM, to understand and engineer microbial enzyme function.
In the first study, structure-guided active site engineering was applied to introduce oxidase activity into the enzyme methylsuccinyl-CoA dehydrogenase. The newly generated methylsuccinyl-CoA oxidase was crucial to realize the first synthetic pathway for the fixation of carbon dioxide, which is five times more efficient than natural carbon fixation pathways. The second study focuses on enzyme structure and function in the b-hydroxyaspartate cycle (BHAC), a metabolic pathway that mediates interactions between marine bacteria and algae. The obtained data made it possible to implement the BHAC enzymes in plants, resulting in improved photosynthetic efficiency. The third study deals with the enzymatic conversion of the plastic PET into value-added products. Together with NeCEN scientists, the cryo-EM structures of two enzymes for the oxidation of ethylene glycol, a monomer of PET, were determined, followed by the generation of mutant enzymes with improved performance.’
The meeting will take place on Thursday the 27th of June at 15:30 in room Huy.2 of the Huygens building (Einsteinweg 55 in Leiden) with a ‘borrel’ afterwards.
You can use the livestream link if you are unable to be there in person but would like to participate anyway:
https://youtube.com/live/aoniI6LQwu0?feature=share
We’ll see you on the 27th!
The NeCEN team