Front Cover: Engineering a Medium‐chain Alcohol Dehydrogenase for Efficient Synthesis of (S)‐N−Boc‐3−pyrrolidinol by Adjusting the Conformational Dynamics of Loops (ChemCatChem 5/2023)

Abstract

The Front Cover shows that a medium-chain alcohol dehydrogenase modified in the loop is efficiently catalyzing N-Boc-3-pyrrolidone to produce (S)-N-Boc-3-pyrrolidinol. In their Research Article, H. Wang and co-workers proposed that loop-loop interaction region acts like the “bridges” between loops and could be used to adjust conformational dynamics of the enzyme, thus modifying its catalytic efficiency. Combined with the analysis of residue orientation and interaction network, three loop-loop interaction regions were selected for mutagenesis. After screening, a mutant with 94.5-fold enhancement in catalytic efficiency was obtained. The results show that the residues located in the loop-loop interaction region could be used to effectively alter the loop conformation, thereby affecting the catalytic properties of the enzyme. More information can be found in the Research Article by H. Wang and co-workers.