Glyn R Hemsworth, Edward J Taylor, Robbert Q Kim, Rebecca C Gregory, Sally J Lewis, Johan P Turkenburg, Alison Parkin, Gideon J Davies, Paul H Walton
The capacity of metal-dependent fungal and bacterial polysaccharide oxygenases, termed GH61 and CBM33, respectively, to potentiate the enzymatic degradation of cellulose opens new possibilities for the conversion of recalcitrant biomass to biofuels. GH61s have already been shown to be unique metalloenzymes containing an active site with a mononuclear copper ion coordinated by two histidines, one of which is an unusual τ-N-methylated N-terminal histidine. We now report the structural and spectroscopic characterization of the corresponding copper CBM33 enzymes...
April 24, 2013: Journal of the American Chemical Society