Since the industrial revolution, the rapid growth and development of global industries have depended largely upon the utilization of coal-derived chemicals, and more recently, the utilization of petroleum-based chemicals. These developments have followed a linear economy model (produce, consume, and dispose). As the world is facing a serious threat from the climate change crisis, a more sustainable solution for manufacturing, i.e., circular economy in which waste from the same or different industries can be used as feedstocks or resources for production offers an attractive industrial/business model. In nature, biological systems, i.e., microorganisms routinely use their enzymes and metabolic pathways to convert organic and inorganic wastes to synthesize biochemicals and energy required for their growth. Therefore, an understanding of how selected enzymes convert biobased feedstocks into special (bio)chemicals serves as an important basis from which to build on for applications in biocatalysis, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology to enable biobased processes that are greener and cleaner for the environment. This review article highlights the current state of knowledge regarding the enzymatic reactions used in converting biobased wastes (lignocellulosic biomass, sugar, phenolic acid, triglyceride, fatty acid, and glycerol) and greenhouse gases (CO 2 and CH 4 ) into value-added products and discusses the current progress made in their metabolic engineering. The commercial aspects and life cycle assessment of products from enzymatic and metabolic engineering are also discussed. Continued development in the field of metabolic engineering would offer diversified solutions which are sustainable and renewable for manufacturing valuable chemicals.

Although flavin-dependent halogenases (FDHs) are attractive biocatalysts, their practical applications are limited because of their low catalytic efficiency. Here, we investigated the reaction mechanisms and structures of tryptophan 6-halogenase (Thal) from Streptomyces albogriseolususing stopped-flow, rapid-quench flow, QM/MM calculations, crystallography and detection of intermediate (hypohalous acid (HOX)) liberation. We found that the key flavin intermediate, C4a-hydroperoxyflavin (C4aOOH-FAD), formed by Thal and other FDHs(tryptophan 7-halogenase (PrnA) and tryptophan 5-halogenase (PyrH)), can react with I-, Br-, and Cl-but not F-, to form C4a-hydroxyflavin and HOX. Our experiments revealed that I-reacts with C4aOOH-FAD the fastest with the lowest energy barrier, and have shown for the first time that a significant amount of the HOX formed leaks out as free HOX.  This leakage is probably a major cause of low product coupling ratios in all FDHs. Site-saturation mutagenesis of Lys79 showed that changing Lys79 to any other amino acid resulted in an inactive enzyme. However, the levels of liberated HOX of these variants are all similar, implying that Lys79 probably does not form a chloramine or bromamine intermediateas previously proposed. Computational calculations revealed that Lys79 has an abnormally lower pKa compared to other Lys residues, implying that the catalytic Lys may act as a proton donor in catalysis. Analysis of new X-ray structures of Thal also explains why pre-mixing of FDHs with FADH- generally results in abolishment of C4aOOH-FAD formation. These findings reveal the hidden factors restricting FDHs capability which should be useful for future development of FDHs applications.

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