Inoue, T: Microbial aldolases as C-C bonding enzymes

Carbon-carbon bonding enzymes can be attractive alternatives to standard chemical methods by allowing chiral control, taking advantage of mild reaction conditions and minimizing the use of protecting groups in reactions. Fructose-6-phosphate aldolase (FSA) from Escherichia coli catalyses reversibly the cleavage of D-fructose-6-phosphate into dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate (GAP). In addition, the enzyme creates new building blocks with 3S, 4R configuration by use of DHA as donor and various aldehydes as acceptor. The goal of this work was to investigate FSA and compare it with the transaldolase from Bacillus subtilis (TALBsu) which is similar both in sequence and structure to FSA (30% identical in amino acid residues). This should help to elucidate relationships between structure and function of both enzymes, and possible applications for FSA and TALBsu for the production of valuable sugars or sugar derivatives.