BioCat Collective
Educating and Building a Broader Biocatalysis Community
Category: Biocatalysis
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Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2026 Mar 4:e2304851. doi: 10.1002/anie.2304851. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The efficient conversion of light into chemical energy in water is often hindered by the poor solubility and self-aggregation of the photosensitizers, such as fullerenes, which limit their applicability. Here, we report a self-assembled Pd8 water-soluble molecular barrel MB that…
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Bioorg Chem. 2026 Mar 9;174:109732. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2026.109732. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Nitrile-containing compounds are significant in pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and materials science. Despite considerable progress in cyanidation methods, these protocols mainly rely on toxic cyanating reagents and chiral metal complexes. Photoenzymatic catalysis combines the high reactivity of photochemistry with the precise stereochemical control of biocatalysis.…
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Sci Rep. 2026 Mar 18. doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-43917-7. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Current paradigms for the origin and evolutions of life and the environment on early Earth have been based on the premises that carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen gas (N2) were the principal constituents of the atmosphere and the sources of carbon and nitrogen…
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Molecules. 2026 Feb 9;31(4):603. doi: 10.3390/molecules31040603. ABSTRACT Enzymatic cascades, defined here as multi-enzymatic sequences operating on a shared reaction pathway and inspired by the spatial and temporal organization of metabolism, have emerged as powerful and versatile tools for sustainable organic synthesis. They minimize intermediate isolation, enhance atom economy and ensure outstanding chemo-, regio- and stereoselectivity,…
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Front Microbiol. 2026 Feb 27;17:1754802. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1754802. eCollection 2026. ABSTRACT Extremophiles are microorganisms that thrive in environments previously thought to be uninhabitable, including extreme temperature, salinity, pH, pressure, and radiation. These organisms, found in Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, exhibit distinct structural, metabolic, and genetic adaptations, such as enhanced enzyme stability, efficient DNA repair mechanisms, and…
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Nat Commun. 2026 Feb 19;17(1):2945. doi: 10.1038/s41467-026-69706-4. ABSTRACT C-prenylated flavonoids possess notable pharmaceutical potential, but their production is hindered by the challenging selective prenylation of their unstable polyphenolic cores. Natural prenyltransferases offer a direct route but suffer from low activity and incomplete mechanistic understanding. Here, we report a directed evolution strategy to reshape the active…
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Plant Biotechnol J. 2026 Feb 19. doi: 10.1111/pbi.70592. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Iridoids constitute a prominent class of plant-specialised metabolites, with carbocyclic iridoids (e.g., geniposide) and secoiridoids (e.g., loganin) diverging early in their biosynthetic pathways. This divergence is marked by substrate-specific carboxyl methyltransferases-GjGAMT and CrLAMT-that catalyse the decisive methylation step in Gardenia jasminoides and…
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Plant Biotechnol J. 2026 Mar 14. doi: 10.1111/pbi.70612. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Belamcanda chinensis is a non-leguminous medicinal plant rich in bioactive isoflavones; however, the lack of a high-quality reference genome has limited elucidation of its isoflavone biosynthetic and modification network. Here, we present the first near telomere-to-telomere genome assembly of B. chinensis (4.18…
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ACS Synth Biol. 2026 Feb 20;15(2):534-547. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.5c00630. Epub 2026 Feb 2. ABSTRACT Antibiotic resistance is escalating, highlighting the urgent need for novel antimicrobial strategies. Defensin-like antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered ideal candidates due to their broad-spectrum activity and engineerable potential; however, their limited antimicrobial efficacy and complex chemical synthesis constrain practical applications. In this…
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Int J Biol Macromol. 2026 Feb;347:150779. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2026.150779. Epub 2026 Feb 5. ABSTRACT Inorganic pyrophosphatases (PPases) catalyze the hydrolysis of inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi) into orthophosphate (Pi) in the presence of magnesium ions, thereby driving diverse biosynthetic processes. They have been widely applied in in vitro transcription, PCR, and sequencing platforms. Mechanism of family I PPases…