6CHJ

Structural and Biochemical Studies of a Biocatalyst for the Enzymatic Production of Wax Esters.

(2018) ACS Catal 8: 6334-6344

• PubMed: 31559109 Search on PubMedSearch on PubMed Central
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.8b00787
• Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
  6CHJ


• PubMed Abstract: 
  

  Wax esters are high-value products whose enzymatic synthesis is of increasing biotechnological interest. The fabrication of cell factories that mass-produce wax esters may provide a facile route towards a sustainable, and environment-friendly approach to a large-scale process for this commodity chemical. An expedient route for wax-ester biocatalysis may be facilitated by the action of enzymes termed wax ester synthases/diacylglycerol acyltransferases (WS/DGAT), which produce wax esters using fatty acids and alcohols as a precursor. In this work, we report the structure for a member of the WS/DGAT superfamily. The structural data in conjunction with bioinformatics and mutational analyses allowed us to identify the substrate binding pockets, and residues that may be important for catalysis. Using this information as a guide, we generated a mutant with preference towards shorter acyl-substrates. This study demonstrates the efficacy of a structure-guided engineering effort towards a WS/DGAT variant with preference towards wax esters of desired lengths.

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Organizational Affiliation: 

Department of Biochemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 600 S. Mathews Ave, Urbana IL USA.