The IPB has once again been recognized for its exemplary actions in terms of equal opportunity-oriented personnel and organizational policies and has received the TOTAL E-QUALITY certification for the…
The Plant Science Student Conference (PSSC) has been organised by students from the two Leibniz institutes, IPK and IPB, every year for the last 20 years. In this interview, Christina Wäsch (IPK) and…
Meng, S.; Ji, Y.; Liu, L.; Davari, M. D.; Schwaneberg, U.;Modulating the coupling efficiency of P450 BM3 by controlling water diffusion through access tunnel engineeringChemSusChem15e202102434(2022)DOI: 10.1002/cssc.202102434
Cytochrome P450s has gained the great interest for their broad substrate scope in the catalysis of oxidation reactions for pharmaceuticals, plastics, and hormones. However, achieving high coupling efficiency by the engineering of P450s is still a big challenge.The presence of extra water around the active site is deemed to be related touncoupling. Herein, we engineered the access tunnels of P450 BM3 from Bacillus megaterium to control water access from bulk solvent to the active site. Nine residues located in tunnels were investigated bysite saturationmutagenesisto reduce the water diffusion,therefore,improvingthe coupling efficiency. Finally, the recombinedvariant N319L/T411V/T436A showed improved coupling efficiency (from 31.2% to 52.6%). Tunnel polarity analysis and MD simulation further proved that reduced water moleculesaround the active site lead to higher coupling efficiency. Overall, our research provides valuable insight on improved coupling efficiency by controlling water diffusion through tunnel engineering.