Enzyme evolution in natural products biosynthesis: target- or diversity-oriented?

Enzyme evolution in natural products biosynthesis: target- or diversity-oriented? Curr Opin Chem Biol. 2020 Aug 06;59:147-154 Authors: Noda-Garcia L, Tawfik DS Abstract Natural product biosynthesis (NPB) is the Panda's Thumb of evolutionary biochemistry. Arm races between organisms, and ever-changing environments, result in relentless innovation. This review focusses on enzyme evolution in NPB. First, we review cases of de novo emergence, whereby a completely new enzymatic activity arose in a ligand-binding protein, or a new enzyme emerged including a completely new scaffold. Second, we briefly review the current models for enzyme evolution, and how they explain the inherent promiscuity of NPB enzymes and their tendency to produce multiple related products. We thus suggest that NPB enzymes a priori evolved to generate a specific product; they are, however, trapped in a multifunctional, generalist evolutionary state and thereby produce a diversity of products. PMID: 32771972 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Opinion in Chemical Biology - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Curr Opin Chem Biol Source Type: research