From Genes to Molecules: Mining Bacterial Genomes for New Enzyme Reactions

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The aim of this proposal is to use bacterial genome sequence data to identify new enzymes that can be used for the development of industrial biocatalysts. Bacteria comprise one of the largest and diverse forms of life on earth. Because of their relatively fragile structures and limited mobility, bacteria rely on novel chemical reactions, catalyzed by enzymes, to synthesize molecules for defence as well as obtain scarce nutrients from the environment. Therefore, harnessing the catalytic power of such enzymes will allow us to degrade pollutants or synthesize valuable molecules in an environmentally friendly manner. One half of this proposal will focus on a new enzyme pathway discovered by our lab, called PhnY-PhnZ, that degrades phosphonates, a class of molecule that include herbicides and chemical warfare agents. We will study the inner workings and structures of the enzymes PhnY and PhnZ so that we can engineer them to degrade phosphonates of environmental concern into harmless phosphate. We will first focus on engineering the PhnY-PhnZ pathway to degrade RoundUp