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

本提案的目的是利用细菌基因组序列数据来鉴定可用于工业生物催化剂开发的新酶。细菌是地球上最大、种类繁多的生命形式之一。由于其相对脆弱的结构和有限的流动性，细菌依靠酶催化的新型化学反应来合成防御分子，并从环境中获取稀缺的营养物质。因此，利用这种酶的催化能力将使我们能够以一种环保的方式降解污染物或合成有价值的分子。这个提议的一半将集中在我们实验室发现的一种新的酶途径上，叫做PhnY-PhnZ，它可以降解磷酸盐，磷酸盐是一类分子，包括除草剂和化学战剂。我们将研究PhnY和PhnZ酶的内部工作原理和结构，以便我们可以设计它们将环境关注的磷酸盐降解为无害的磷酸盐。我们将首先专注于设计PhnY-PhnZ途径来降解农达

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