Immobilization of a cytochrome P-450 enzyme from Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Cytochrome P450 for environmental remediation: catalytic mechanism, engineering strategies and future prospects

Environmental pollution is a global concern. Various organic compounds are released into the environment through wastewater, waste gas, and waste residue, ultimately accumulating in the environment and the food chain. This poses a significant threat to both human health and ecology. Currently, a growing body of research has demonstrated that microorganisms employ their Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) system for biodegradation, offering a crucial approach for eliminating these pollutants in environmental remediation. CYP450, a ubiquitous catalyst in nature, includes a vast array of family members distributed widely across various organisms, including bacteria, fungi, and mammals. These enzymes participate in the metabolism of diverse organic compounds. Furthermore, the rapid advancements in enzyme and protein engineering have led to increased utilization of engineered CYP450s in environmental remediation, enhancing their efficiency in pollutant removal. This article presents an overview of the current understanding of various members of the CYP450 superfamily involved in transforming organic pollutants and the engineering of biodegrading CYP450s. Additionally, it explores the catalytic mechanisms, current practical applications of CYP450-based systems, their potential applications, and the prospects in bioremediation.

Progress towards the easier use of P450 enzymes

The cytochrome P450 enzymes (P450s or CYPs) form a large family of heme proteins involved in drug metabolism and in the biosynthesis of steroids, lipids, vitamins and natural products. Their remarkable ability to catalyze the insertion of oxygen into non-activated C-H bonds has attracted the interest of chemists for several decades. Very few chemical methods exist that directly hydroxylate aliphatic or aromatic C-H bonds, and most of them are not selective or of limited scope. Biocatalysts such as P450s represent a promising alternative: however, their applications have been limited by substrate specificity, low activity, poor stability and the need for cofactors. This review covers the attempts to overcome these limitations using approaches such as mutagenesis, chemical modifications, conditions engineering and immobilization.

Chemometric optimisation of parameters for biocatalytic reduction of copper ion by a crude enzyme lysate of Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown under catabolic repression conditions

The capacity of the microbes to reduce the metal has been demonstrated. The immobilised induced microbes with toxic chemical CuCl(2) was used to reduce the Cu ions as elemental metal and by using the response surface methodology the parameters such as the inducer concentration, the time of inducer addition which are concerned with the growth and formation of specific enzymes and the initial substrate concentration, initial pH of the substrate solution and the time of reaction which are concerned with the biocatalytic reduction of the metal ions were optimised for maximum reduction. The elemental copper reduced and removed experimentally from its ionic state at the optimum conditions was 54.82ppm.