Enantioselective Organometallic Enzyme Hybrid (OMEH) Catalysts

Enantioselective Organometallic Enzyme Hybrid (OMEH) Catalysts

Author: Saskia Neubacher

Artificial metalloenzymes could greatly expand the range of reactions accessible by biocatalysis. So far, the most successful strategy to achieve good catalytic activities and enantioselectivities has been through site-directed anchoring of artificial cofactors representing appropriate ligands or metal complexes.

Jörg Eppinger and co-workers, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia, designed modular metal-conjugated affinity labels. They consist of three units:

  1. an achiral, catalytically active metal complex,
  2. a protease-specific reactive group that is able to form a covalent bond with the active center of the enzyme, and
  3. a peptidic affinity tail to direct the binding orientation.

The team showed that variation of the metal center, affinity tail, and the host protein influence the enantioselectivities of a ketone hydrogenation and achieve enantiomeric ratios of up to 82:18.

According to the researchers, this modular setup enables a rapid generation of artificial metalloenzyme libraries, which can be adapted to a broad range of catalytic conditions.


 

 

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