The use of biological catalysts for industrial scale synthetic chemistry is highly attractive, given their cost effectiveness, high specificity that obviates the need for protecting group chemistry, and the environmentally benign nature of enzymatic procedures. Here we evolve the naturally occurring 2-keto-3-deoxy-6-phosphogluconate (KDPG) aldolases from Thermatoga maritima and Escherichia coli, into enzymes that recognize a nonfunctionalized electrophilic substrate, 2-keto-4-hydroxyoctonoate (KHO). Using an in vivo selection based on pyruvate auxotrophy, mutations were identified that lower the K(M) value up to 100-fold in E. coli KDPG aldolase, and that enhance the efficiency of retro-aldol cleavage of KHO by increasing the value of k(cat)/K(M) up to 25-fold in T. maritima KDPG aldolase. These data indicate that numerous mutations distal from the active site contribute to enhanced 'uniform binding' of the substrates, which is the first step in the evolution of novel catalytic activity.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 25 March 2025.
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#3,650,535
of 33,276,949 outputs
Outputs from Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
#512
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#17,204
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Outputs of similar age from Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry
#9
of 122 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 33,276,949 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 8,953 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 5.6. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 165,432 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 89% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 122 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.
