Biocatalysts for methane conversion: big progress on breaking a small substrate.

Biocatalysts for methane conversion: big progress on breaking a small substrate.
Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2016 Oct 18;35:142-149
Authors: Lawton TJ, Rosenzweig AC
Abstract
Nature utilizes two groups of enzymes to catalyze methane conversions, methyl-coenzyme M reductases (MCRs) and methane monooxygenases (MMOs). These enzymes have been difficult to incorporate into industrial processes due to their complexity, poor stability, and lack of recombinant tractability. Despite these issues, new ways of preparing and stabilizing these enzymes have recently been discovered, and new mechanistic insight into how MCRs and MMOs break the C-H bond in nature's most inert hydrocarbon have been obtained. This review focuses on recent findings in the methane biocatalysis field, and discusses the impact of these finding on designing MMO and MCR-based biotechnologies.
PMID: 27768948 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Current Opinion in Chemical Biology - October 17, 2016 Category: Biochemistry Authors: Lawton TJ, Rosenzweig AC Tags: Curr Opin Chem Biol Source Type: research