Glutathione transferases (GSTs, EC 2.5.1.18) are a widespread family of enzymes that play a central role in the detoxification, metabolism, and transport or sequestration of endogenous or xenobiotic compounds. During the last two decades, delineation of the important structural and catalytic features of GSTs has laid the groundwork for engineering GSTs, involving both rational and random approaches, aiming to create new variants with new or altered properties. These approaches have expanded the usefulness of native GSTs, not only for understanding the fundamentals of molecular detoxification mechanisms, but also for the development medical, analytical, environmental, and agricultural applications. This review article attempts to summarize successful examples and current developments on GST engineering, highlighting in parallel the recent knowledge gained on their phylogenetic relationships, structural/catalytic features, and biotechnological applications.

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Our results suggest that GmGSTU5-5 and GmGSTU8-8 display different or overlapping substrate specificities and kinetic properties. The biological role of GmGSTU5-5 and GmGSTU8-8 may be relevant to the detoxification of toxic compounds or the binding of bioactive metabolites that function in cell regulation and stress defence mechanisms.

Plant cytosolic glutathione transferases (GSTs) belong to an ancient enzyme superfamily with multiple and diverse functions which are important in counteracting biotic and abiotic stress. GSTs catalyze the conjugation of xenobiotics and endogenous electrophilic compounds with glutathione (GSH), leading to their detoxification. GSTs not only catalyze detoxification reactions but they are also involved in GSH-dependent isomerization reactions, in GSH-dependent reduction of organic hydroperoxides, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, and exhibit thioltransferase and dehydroascorbate reductase activity. The applications of ‘omics’ technologies have allowed the classification of GSTs and the study of their evolution and sequence diversity, while enzymology has provided powerful insights into their catalytic role. This review focuses on plant GSTs, and attempts to give an overview of the new insights into their catalytic function and biological role in biotic and abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms in plants