Fungal epoxide hydrolases: new landmarks in sequence-activity space

Epoxide hydrolases are useful catalysts for the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides, which are sought after intermediates for the synthesis of enantiopure fine chemicals. The epoxide hydrolases from Aspergillus niger and from the basidiomycetous yeasts Rhodotorula glutinis and Rhodosporidium toruloides have demonstrated potential as versatile, user friendly biocatalysts for organic synthesis. A recombinant A. niger epoxide hydrolase, produced by an overproducing A. niger strain, is already commercially available and recombinant yeast epoxide hydrolases expressed in Escherichia coli have shown excellent results. Within the vast body of activity information on the one hand and gene sequence information on the other hand, the epoxide hydrolases from the Rhodotorula spp. and A. niger stand out because we have sequence information as well as activity information for both the wild-type and recombinant forms of these enzymes.