Synthetic biology enables spontaneous protein activation
“Nature Chemical Biology”: Design and production of
hydrogenases simplified significantly
Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have
discovered an efficient process for hydrogen biocatalysis. They developed
semi-synthetic hydrogenases, hydrogen-generating enzymes, by adding the
protein's biological precursor to a chemically synthesized inactive iron
complex. From these two components, the biological catalyst formed
spontaneously in a test tube. “Extracting hydrogenases from living cells is
highly difficult,” says Prof Dr Thomas Happe, head of the work group
Photobiotechnology at the RUB. “Therefore, their industrial application has
always been a long way off. Now, we have made a decisive step towards the
generation of bio-based materials.” Together with colleagues from the MPI
Mülheim and from Grenoble, the RUB researchers report their findings in the
journal “Nature Chemical Biology”.