Unconventional Catalytic Properties of Conventional Enzymes: Applications in Organic Chemistry

Abstract

The major objective of this paper is to stress that enzymes, in addition to their “normal” reactions (reflected in their names), often can catalyze other, sometimes quite different processes. The latter, although unimportant for the enzyme-producing organism, can be very valuable for biotechnological applications. The examples of “unnatural” catalytic activities of common enzymes that are considered, taken from the author’s recent studies, include: (i) reduction of aromatic compounds catalyzed by glucose oxidase; (ii) prochiral and enantiomeric stereospecificity of galactose oxidase in the oxidation of non-sugar, three-carbon alcohols; (iii) selective hydroxylation of aromatic compounds catalyzed by peroxidase; (iv) geometrically and positionally specific oxidation of aromatic aldehydes catalyzed by xanthine oxidase.

It is pointed out that along with conventional bacterial screening, a “chemical screening”, i.e., the search for new, unconventional catalytic activities for known enzymes, can be beneficial.