An enzymatic route to carbon-silicon bonds

Abstract

Silicon is the second most abundant element in Earth’s crust after oxygen, but carbon-silicon bonds are unheard of in nature: Neither biological organosilicon compounds nor biosynthetic pathways to create them have been identified. But researchers from California Institute of Technology found this year that, when given the right starting materials, some heme proteins can stereospecifically form carbon-silicon bonds (Science 2016, DOI: 10.1126/science.aah6219). “Nature’s iron heme chemistry just jumps on this opportunity because we provided it with the right precursors,” says Frances H. Arnold, who led the work with S. B. Jennifer Kan. “It’s a profound demonstration of how easily nature can innovate.” Prior work in Arnold’s lab and elsewhere had demonstrated that heme proteins can catalyze nonnatural carbene transfer reactions through insertion into N–H and S–H bonds. In the new experiments, the Caltech researchers screened a panel of heme proteins to find ones that could catalyze insertion of ethyl 2-diaz...