产业动向

我国现代生物工业产业群已经形成"十一五"期间,我国加大对生物化工技术领域的科研投入,在生物催化剂定向改造、规模化的生物催化技术系统、生物材料和生物能源等领域取得重要成果,现代生物工业产业群已经形成。     

生物催化剂发现与改造的研究进展

生物催化是指将酶或生物有机体用于有用的化学转化的过程,在人们对传统化学催化的环境影响抱有忧虑的情况下,生物催化提供了一种有吸引力的选择。在过去的几十年里,对生物催化剂的研究每出现一次大的进步,生物催化的发展就会出现一次高潮。因此,生物催化剂的发现与改造已成为当今研究的热点。宏基因组文库技术的出现克服了许多微生物不可培养的障碍,人们能够从自然资源中获得丰富的潜在的生物催化剂。而基于理性设计的分子改造技术的发展,可以使得人们对潜在的生物催化剂进行快速而有效的改造以满足工业化生产的需求。随着生物催化剂发现与改造的手段不断进步,更多的优良生物催化剂得到了广泛的应用,生物催化在工业生产中也得到了更深入的应用。结合作者的研究工作,总结了生物催化剂发现与改良的一些研究进展,以为获得更多优良的、能够实现工业应用的生物催化剂奠定理论基础。     

工业蛋白质构效关系的计算生物学解析

工业催化用酶已经成为现代生物制造技术的核心"芯片"。不断设计和研发新型高效的酶催化剂是发展工业生物技术的关键。工业催化剂创新设计的科学基础是对酶与底物的相互作用、结构与功能关系及其调控机制的深入剖析。随着生物信息学和智能计算技术的发展,可以通过计算的方法解析酶的催化反应机理,进而对其结构的特定区域进行理性重构,实现酶催化性能的定向设计与改造,促进其工业应用。聚焦工业酶结构-功能关系解析的计算模拟和理性设计,已成为工业酶高效创制改造不可或缺的关键技术。本文就各种计算方法和设计策略以及未来发展趋势进行简要介绍和讨论。     

精细化学品绿色合成用工具酶酌定向开发

近年来随着人们环境保护意识的增强以及对可持续发展技术的追求,使得以绿色环保为特色的生物催化技术越来越受到人们的关注。生物催化剂作为生物催化技术的工具,发挥着至关重要的核心作用。本文综述了生物催化技术发展各个阶段生物催化剂定向开发的最新进展。     

生物催化剂研发及生物催化技术的产业化

资源危机与环境压力已经成为现代人类社会实现可持续发展的主要瓶颈,着眼于发展环境友好、过程高效的工业生物技术,有望对社会发展产生巨大的引领和带动作用,工业生物技术的发展将成为解决能源、环境和资源问题的关键,而生物催化是工业生物技术的核心技术.本文介绍了生物催化在工业可持续发展中的地位,国内外研究进展及其影响,并对新型生物催化剂的发现与新的催化功能的开发应用实例进行了介绍.     

有机化合物生物催化研究进展

随着近十几年来工业生物技术的发展,有机化合物的生物催化也取得了飞速的进步.近几年的研究集中在:新生物催化剂的筛选和酶的定向改造;非水相生物催化中酶有机溶剂耐受性的增强和非传统介质的应用;生物催化在手性化合物,药物等精细化学品领域的应用;组合生物催化作为组合化学和生物催化相结合而成的一个新技术生长点,并取得一定的进展,为新药的开发提供一种切实可行的方法.     

宏基因组--生物催化剂的新来源

生物催化剂是工业生物催化的重要组成部分,宏基因组是生物催化剂的新来源。该文介绍了从宏基因组中寻找生物催化剂的主要步骤,着重描述了DNA的分离和目标克隆的筛选这两个关键技术,并列举了利用宏基因组技术所获得的生物催化剂．     

生物催化剂的发现及改造

生物催化剂是限制工业生物催化的重要瓶颈,发现新型生物催化剂或生物催化剂的新功能及新底物是目前的主要任务。实现该目标的方法有三种:(1)从环境样品中筛选,(2)利用蛋白质工程改造现有生物催化剂,(3)探寻现有生物催化剂的新功能。本文描述了上述三种方法的关键步骤及技术,其中重点介绍了高通量培养技术以及新近发展起来的半理性设计改造生物催化剂的技术。     

工业生物技术创新与发展 —“中国工业生物技术发展高峰论坛·2008”专刊序言

资源匮乏、能源短缺和环境污染日趋恶化等现实问题,已经成为社会可持续发展的巨大障碍。工业生物技术作为生物技术发展的第三次浪潮,是解决目前人类所面临的资源、能源与环境问题的有效途径之一,是工业可持续发展最有希望的技术。本期“中国工业生物技术发展高峰论坛·2008”专刊, 集中展现了我国工业生物技术专家学者在生物炼制和生物基化学品、微生物基因组学和生物信息学、代谢工程与药物研发、现代工业酶技术、生物炼制细胞工厂、生物催化与生物转化、工业生物过程技术以及工业微生物菌种的选育和改良等工业生物技术领域所取得的最新进展。希望通过专刊的出版, 更好地促进我国工业生物技术领域的交流和发展。     

工业生物技术创新与发展 —“中国工业生物技术发展高峰论坛·2008”专刊序言

资源匮乏、能源短缺和环境污染日趋恶化等现实问题,已经成为社会可持续发展的巨大障碍。工业生物技术作为生物技术发展的第三次浪潮,是解决目前人类所面临的资源、能源与环境问题的有效途径之一,是工业可持续发展最有希望的技术。本期“中国工业生物技术发展高峰论坛·2008”专刊, 集中展现了我国工业生物技术专家学者在生物炼制和生物基化学品、微生物基因组学和生物信息学、代谢工程与药物研发、现代工业酶技术、生物炼制细胞工厂、生物催化与生物转化、工业生物过程技术以及工业微生物菌种的选育和改良等工业生物技术领域所取得的最新进展。希望通过专刊的出版, 更好地促进我国工业生物技术领域的交流和发展。     

Directed evolution: an approach to engineer enzymes

Directed evolution is being used increasingly in industrial and academic laboratories to modify and improve commercially important enzymes. Laboratory evolution is thought to make its biggest contribution in explorations of non-natural functions, by allowing us to distinguish the properties nurtured by evolution. In this review we report the significant advances achieved with respect to the methods of biocatalyst improvement and some critical properties and applications of the modified enzymes. The application of directed evolution has been elaborately demonstrated for protein solubility, stability and catalytic efficiency. Modification of certain enzymes for their application in enantioselective catalysis has also been elucidated. By providing a simple and reliable route to enzyme improvement, directed evolution has emerged as a key technology for enzyme engineering and biocatalysis.     

Novel approaches for discovering industrial enzymes.

New technologies for enzyme discovery are changing the rules of the game for industrial biocatalysis. More kinds of enzymes are available, their hardiness is increasing, and their costs are coming down. These changes are the key drivers for a rebirth of interest in industrial applications of enzymes. The major enabling discovery approaches include screening of biodiversity, genomic sequencing, directed evolution and phage display.     

Directed Evolution: An Approach to Engineer Enzymes

ABSTRACT

Directed evolution is being used increasingly in industrial and academic laboratories to modify and improve commercially important enzymes. Laboratory evolution is thought to make its biggest contribution in explorations of non-natural functions, by allowing us to distinguish the properties nurtured by evolution. In this review we report the significant advances achieved with respect to the methods of biocatalyst improvement and some critical properties and applications of the modified enzymes. The application of directed evolution has been elaborately demonstrated for protein solubility, stability and catalytic efficiency. Modification of certain enzymes for their application in enantioselective catalysis has also been elucidated. By providing a simple and reliable route to enzyme improvement, directed evolution has emerged as a key technology for enzyme engineering and biocatalysis.     

A window into biocatalysis and biotransformations

Eight papers were presented in this year's symposium "Advances in Biocatalysis" at the 232nd ACS National Meeting, accentuating the most recent development in biocatalysis. Researchers from both industry and academia are addressing several fundamental problems in biocatalysis, including the limited number of commercially available enzymes that can be provided in bulk quantities, the limited enzyme stability and activity in nonaqueous environments, and the permeability issue and cell localization problems in whole-cell systems. A trend that can be discerned from these eight talks is the infusion of new tools and technologies in addressing various challenges facing biocatalysis. Nanotechnology, bioinformatics, cellular membrane engineering and metabolic engineering (for engineering whole-cell catalysts), and protein engineering (to improve enzymes and create novel enzymes) are becoming more routinely used in research laboratories and are providing satisfactory solutions to the problems in biocatalysis. Significant progress in various aspects of biocatalysis from discovery to industrial applications was highlighted in this symposium.     

Combinatorial biocatalysis: taking the lead from nature

Combinatorial biocatalysis is an emerging technology in the field of drug discovery. The biocatalytic approach to combinatorial chemistry uses enzymatic, chemoenzymatic, and microbial transformations to generate libraries from lead compounds. Important recent advances in combinatorial biocatalysis include iterative derivatization of small molecules and complex natural products, regioselectively controlled libraries, novel one-pot library syntheses, process automation, and biocatalyst enhancements.     

Nitrile-converting enzymes as a tool to improve biocatalysis in organic synthesis: recent insights and promises

Nitrile-converting enzymes, including nitrilase and nitrile hydratase (NHase), have received increasing attention from researchers of industrial biocatalysis because of their critical role as a tool in organic synthesis of carboxylic acids and amides from nitriles. To date, these bioconversion approaches are considered as one of the most potential industrial processes using resting cells or purified enzymes as catalysts for production of food additives, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical precursors. This review focuses on the distribution and catalytic mechanism research of nitrile-converting enzymes in recent years. Molecular biology aspects to improve the biocatalytic performance of microbial nitrilase and NHase are demonstrated. The process developments of microbial nitrilase and NHase for organic synthesis are also discussed.     

Biotransformations using prokaryotic P450 monooxygenases

Recent studies on microbial cytochrome P450 enzymes have covered several new areas. Advances have been made in structure-function analysis and new non-enzymatic/electrochemical systems for the replacement of NAD(P)H in biocatalysis have been developed. Furthermore, the properties of some enzymes have been re-engineered by site-directed mutagenesis or by methods of directed evolution and new P450s have been functionally expressed and characterized. It is thought that a combination of these approaches will facilitate the use of isolated P450 monooxygenases in biocatalysis.     

In vitro selection of kinase and ligase deoxyribozymes

Exploration of the limits of biocatalysis has led to the discovery that DNA has significant potential for enzymatic function. This makes possible the construction of DNA enzymes or "deoxyribozymes" for catalyzing various chemical reactions that could be used to address fundamental questions in biocatalysis or that could find unique applications in biotechnology. Of significant interest are self-modification reactions, given the fundamental role that DNA serves in modern living systems. Recently, in vitro selection strategies have been used to isolate prototypical ATP-dependent deoxyribozymes from random-sequence populations of DNA that catalyze DNA phosphorylation and others that catalyze DNA adenylation. In nature, protein enzymes such as T4 DNA kinase and T4 DNA ligase catalyze identical chemical reactions. These findings suggest that DNA constructs could be engineered to efficiently catalyze other self-modifying reactions, including ATP-dependent DNA ligation. This article provides a detailed overview of the methods used to isolate deoxyribozymes that promote ATP-dependent DNA ligation.     

Whole cell biocatalysis in nonconventional media

Summary In this paper biocatalytic reactions carried out by whole cells in nonconventional media are reviewed. Similar relationships are observed between solvent hydrophobicity and catalytic activity in reactions carried out by isolated enzymes and whole cells. In addition to the effect of organic solvent on biocatalyst stability, microbial cells are susceptible to damaging effects caused by the organic phase. In general, more hydrophobic solvents manifest lower toxicity towards the cells. Whole cell biocatalysts require more water than isolated enzymes and two-phase systems have been most widely used to study whole cell biocatalysis. Immobilization makes cell biocatalysts more resistant to organic solvents and helps achieve homogeneous biocatalyst dispersion. Cell entrapment methods have been widely used with organic solvent systems and mixtures of natural and/or synthetic polymers allow adjustment of the hydrophobicity-hydrophilicity balance of the support matrix. Some examples of stereoselective catalysis using microbial cells in organic solvent media are presented.