Chapter 6 - Discovery, redesign and applications of Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of recent developments concerning special oxidative biocatalysts and also sketches some future perspectives of these biocatalysts. Baeyer–Villiger monooxygenases (BVMOs) represent valuable oxidative biocatalysts. As each BVMO is limited in substrate specificity, it is crucial to have a large collection of these oxidative biocatalysts available. Except for expanding the scope of possible reactions, a large toolbox of BVMOs also increase the chance of being able to perform any wanted specific chemo-, regio- and/or enantioselective reaction. This contrasts with the present situation as only a relatively small number of BVMOs can be exploited for biocatalytic purposes. A special feature of these atypical monooxygenases is that they catalyze not only Baeyer– Villiger oxidations but also sulfoxidations and a number of other oxidation reactions. An obvious way to generate new BVMOs is by taking advantage of the genome sequence information: genome mining. A table in the chapter illustrates that many putative BVMO genes can be identified, which can be explored for their catalytic potential.