Structure Function Relationship of Redox Enzymes

Oxidoreductases can catalyse highly important biocatalytic reactions, where organic syntheses meet limitations with respect to regio-, substrate-, or stereoselectivity. In addition, biocatalysts can be employed under environmentally friendly conditions thereby avoiding high energy input and heavy metal catalysts. However, in contrast to hydrolytic biocatalytic processes, there is much less knowledge about the catalytic mechanisms of oxidoreductases and about the exact reasons of enzyme inactivation under industrial processes conditions. Only very few oxidoreductases are well studied and many new enzymes belonging to this class are still expected to be discovered in the future. Since oxidoreductases offer innovative synthetic routes for the production of many different classes of fine chemicals such as alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and amines we need to know more about the structure / function relationships and the mode of enzyme inactivation. Individual work packages of this project will deal with enzymatic oxidations, reductions, characterisation of substrate scopes and analysis and engineering for higher fitness in industrial processes.