Expanding the substrate and biological scopes of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases

酶是大自然的催化剂；它们加速了化学反应，否则这些化学反应将需要太长时间才能发挥作用。这就是酶的力量，它们已经被用于非常多的应用中。例如，现代洗衣粉含有分解衣服上污渍的酶，但这种酶是在温度下进行的，这意味着洗涤可以在较低的温度下进行，从而节省能源。另一个例子是在怀孕测试试剂盒中使用酶来提供高度准确和快速的结果。然而，尽管酶技术有了很大的进步，但我们的理解还存在差距。当一种酶必须与固体底物(如塑料或生物质)反应时，就会出现这种缺口。在这里，底物如此之大，以至于它不能被酶‘包裹’(当底物进入所谓的酶活性部位时，正常的酶就会这样做)。这种不能包裹底物的能力削弱了酶通过扭曲和弯曲底物的形状来加速反应的一些能力，使它们变得具有活性。这一差距是严重的，因为有许多人类想要用酶来分解的固体底物。这些物质包括废弃的植物物质(例如，可以转化为燃料)或废弃塑料(目前正在污染我们的海洋)。该项目专注于最近发现的一类酶，称为裂解多糖单加氧酶(LPMOS)，已被证明能分解纤维素(植物物质)，纤维素是一种高度不活跃的固体底物。LPMO催化这一反应的能力是非同寻常的，现在正在提出新的问题，即生物学如何利用酶来分解固体物质。我们试图利用一种称为基因组挖掘的技术来研究可以被全新类别的LPMO分解的底物的范围。我们将非常详细地分离和研究这些酶，试图了解它们的化学特征，最重要的是，看看我们是否可以将它们破坏固体物质的特性转化为社会公益，在这种情况下，我们是否可以将这些新的LPMO用于昆虫控制，在那里它们可以用来分解蚊子的角质层。

Enzymes are nature's catalysts; they speed up chemical reactions which otherwise would take too long to be useful. Such is the power of enzymes to do this, that they have been utilised in very many applications. For instance, modern washing powders contain enzymes that breakdown the stains on clothes, but do this at temperatures which mean that washing can be done at a low temperature, saving energy. Another example is where enzymes are used in pregnancy testing kits to deliver highly accurate and rapid results. Despite the great advances in enzyme technology however, there is a gap in our understanding. This gap comes when an enzyme has to react with a solid substrate, say plastic or biomass. Here the substrate is so large that it cannot be 'wrapped-up' by the enzyme (as normal enzymes do when the substrate enters into the so-called active site of the enzyme). This inability to wrap-up a substrate detracts from some of the power of enzymes to speed up reactions by distorting and bending the shape of substrates such that they become reactive. This gap is serious, as there are many solid substrates which humankind would like to breakdown using enzymes. These include waste plant matter (that could be turned into fuel for instance) or waste plastics (which currently contaminate our oceans). This project is focussed on a recently discovered class of enzymes called lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs), which have been shown to breakdown cellulose (plant matter) which is an highly unreactive solid substrate. The power of LPMOs to catalyse this reaction is extraordinary, and is now posing new questions on how biology uses enzymes to breakdown solid matter. We seek to investigate the range of substrates that can be broken down by completely new classes of LPMOs that we have found using a technique called genome mining. We will isolate and study these enzymes in great detail, trying to understanding their chemical features and-most importantly-see if we can turn their properties to destroy solid matter towards societal good, in this case whether we can use these new LPMOs in insect control where they can be employed to breakdown the cuticles of mosquitoes.