Directed Evolution: of the Aspergillus niger Epoxide Hydrolase

Darwinian Evolution of an enzyme?? You might wonder, what's this??Genetic Evolution of a biocatalyst, scientifically known as directed evolution" has emerged in last decade thanks to great advances in molecular biology as a very powerful tool to genetically "manipulate" an enzyme either to improve enzyme properties to switch the selectivity or to create a completely new catalyst.Epoxides are versatile building blocks for natural product synthesis. Quoting Prof. Seebach: "If carbonyl compounds have been said to be virtually the backbone of organic synthesis the epoxides correspond to at least one of the main muscles" this emphasized the importance of these compounds. Epoxide hydrolases are useful biocatalysts to obtain optically enriched epoxides.This work applied directed evolution as a strategy to improve the enantioselectivity of an epoxide hydrolase. Different selection and screening methods were established... What about the final result? Take a look you will find out!"