Evolutionary history and biotechnological future of carboxylases

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a potent greenhouse gas whose presence in the atmosphere is a critical factor for global warming. At the same time atmospheric CO2 is also a cheap and readily available carbon source that can in principle be used to synthesize value-added products. However, as uncatalyzed chemical CO2-fixation reactions usually require quite harsh conditions to functionalize the CO2 molecule, not many processes have been developed that make use of CO2. In contrast to synthetical chemistry, Nature provides a multitude of different carboxylating enzymes whose carboxylating principle(s) might be exploited in biotechnology. This review focuses on the biochemical features of carboxylases, highlights possible evolutionary scenarios for the emergence of their reactivity, and discusses current, as well as potential future applications of carboxylases in organic synthesis, biotechnology and synthetic biology.