Biokatalyse mit nicht-natürlichen Aminosäuren: Enzymologie trifft Xenobiologie

The development of new orthogonal aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase/tRNA pairs has led to the addition of approximately 70 unnatural amino acids (UAAs) to the genetic codes of Escherichia coli, yeast, and mammalian cells. These UAAs represent a wide range of structures and functions not found in the canonical 20 amino acids and thus provide new opportunities to generate proteins with enhanced or novel properties and probes of protein structure and function.

The use of biocatalysis for industrial synthetic chemistry is on the verge of significant growth. Biocatalytic processes can now be carried out in organic solvents as well as aqueous environments, so that apolar organic compounds as well as water-soluble compounds can be modified selectively and efficiently with enzymes and biocatalytically active cells. As the use of biocatalysis for industrial chemical synthesis becomes easier, several chemical companies have begun to increase significantly the number and sophistication of the biocatalytic processes used in their synthesis operations.