{"id":1176,"date":"2018-12-06T11:23:23","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T11:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/in-abstract\/?p=1176"},"modified":"2019-09-16T14:34:41","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T13:34:41","slug":"mechanistic-studies-of-fatty-acid-activation-by-cyp152-peroxygenases-reveal-unexpected-desaturase-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk\/in-abstract\/mechanistic-studies-of-fatty-acid-activation-by-cyp152-peroxygenases-reveal-unexpected-desaturase-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanistic studies of fatty acid activation by CYP152 Peroxygenases reveal unexpected desaturase activity"},"content":{"rendered":"

New reaction channel of biofuel synthesising enzyme.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Synthesising biofuels using enzymes is a challenging task as often they give a range of (un)wanted by-products. A recently discovered class of heme enzymes utilize hydrogen peroxide and react with fatty acids to form terminal olefins that can be used as biofuels. Unfortunately, the reaction is not highly selective and gives a range of unuseful by-products leading to substrate hydroxylation.<\/p>\n

Researchers from the University of Manchester, University of Graz and Austrian Centre of Industrial Biotechnology have discovered an interesting alternative product that converts saturated as well as branched fatty acids into unsaturated fatty acids, which may be valuable industrial products. A combined experimental and computational study analyzed the product distributions and found different reaction channels based on the size and shape of the substrate. The work gives insight into how substrates bind to enzymes and how products are formed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n