BioCat Collective
Educating and Building a Broader Biocatalysis Community
Category: Biocatalysis
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Nucleic Acids Res. 2026 May 11:gkag471. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkag471. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The design of pathways to synthesize valuable molecules remains a central challenge in chemistry and biotechnology. Several computational retrosynthesis tools have been developed to address this problem, but their scope is often confined only to reactions in either synthetic organic chemistry or…
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World J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2026 May 9;42(6):273. doi: 10.1007/s11274-026-05005-w. ABSTRACT Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are a class of copper-dependent oxidases capable of cleaving glycosidic bonds in crystalline polysaccharides through oxidative mechanisms, playing a pivotal role in biomass refining and green biomanufacturing. However, natural LPMOs still face technical bottlenecks such as insufficient electron transfer efficiency, limited…
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A high sensitivity strategy to screen NAD(P)H-dependent reductase activity by coupled enzyme cascade
J Biol Chem. 2026 May 8:113135. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2026.113135. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Enzymes play a pivotal role in “green chemistry” as tools for biocatalysis. Oxidoreductase enzymes are especially useful for carrying out key electron transfer (redox) steps towards a wide range of chemical transformations (e.g., asymmetric hydrogenation, oxygenation, hydroxylation, epoxidation, or Baeyer-Villiger oxidation) that…
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Chembiochem. 2026 May 14;27(9):e202500898. doi: 10.1002/cbic.202500898. ABSTRACT Whole-cell biocatalysis offers a sustainable alternative to traditional chemical synthesis for producing pharmaceutically relevant, often chiral, amines and amino acids. Saccharomyces cerevisiae has emerged as a privileged microbial chassis due to its robustness, ease of genetic manipulation, and GRAS status. This concise review summarizes recent advances in metabolic…
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Chemistry. 2026 May 9:e71115. doi: 10.1002/chem.71115. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The siderophore synthetase DesD generates hydroxamic acid chelators with applications in metal-based radiopharmaceuticals and sequestering toxic or commodity metals. DesD has been used in chemoenzymatic syntheses with native substrates, with less focus on non-native substrates. This study investigated masking the modest activity of the…
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J Agric Food Chem. 2026 May 9. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5c17010. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Contamination by foodborne pathogens, coupled with the “clean label” consumer trend, is driving the development of safe and effective antimicrobial alternatives. Bacteriocins from food-grade Bifidobacterium strains have emerged as promising candidates due to their safety, broad-spectrum activity, and physicochemical stability. This…
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Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2026 May 9. doi: 10.1007/s00253-026-13857-3. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT L-Alanine dehydrogenase (L-AlaDH) is a microbial enzyme that catalyzes the reversible oxidative deamination of L-Alanine to pyruvate. This enzyme catalyzes the reversible conversion of L-Alanine to pyruvate, while concurrently maintaining redox homeostasis through the NAD + /NADH coenzyme system. Despite the critical…
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Bioorg Chem. 2026 May 5;178:109950. doi: 10.1016/j.bioorg.2026.109950. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT The 6/5/6 to 6/6/5 ring system rearrangement from indole alkaloids strictosidine (1) and strictosamide (2) to quinoline alkaloid pumiloside (3) is an essential but unelucidated process in the biosynthesis of camptothecin, especially, the intermediates involved in the process have not been identified. Herein,…
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Biomolecular condensates for biocatalysis: from physicochemical properties to multiscale regulations
Curr Opin Biotechnol. 2026 May 8;99:103507. doi: 10.1016/j.copbio.2026.103507. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Biomolecular condensates formed through phase separation are emerging as a central player for spatiotemporal organization of many cellular processes. Significant progress has been made recently in the identification and functional analysis of natural biomolecular condensates, and in the design and construction of…
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Biotechnol Appl Biochem. 2026 May 8. doi: 10.1002/bab.70179. Online ahead of print. ABSTRACT Neisseria gonorrhoeae poses an urgent public health challenge due to rapidly increasing antimicrobial resistance and the absence of an effective vaccine. Targeting conserved bacterial pathways involved in essential physiological processes may provide new opportunities for vaccine antigen discovery. In this study, we…