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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Expression, Purification, Crystallization, and Enzyme Assays of Fumarylacetoacetate Hydrolase Domain-Containing Proteins
Published on: June 20, 2019
Confronting PFAS persistence: enzymes catalyzing C-F bond cleavage
1Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology & Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Abstract:
Studies of enzymes catalyzing carbon-fluorine (C-F) bond cleavage have focused largely on a limited number of native microbial hydrolases that are reactive with the natural product fluoroacetate. Driven by widespread interest in biodegrading commercial fluorinated compounds, many of which are known as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS), it is necessary to identify and engineer new enzymes. For example, some hydrolases react with -CF2- moieties, a common functionality in PFAS. Additional enzymatic C-F cleaving mechanisms catalyzed by reductases, lyases, and oxygenases have been identified via screening. Screening and evolving PFAS defluorination in bacteria is inhibited by the obligate release of toxic fluoride from C-F cleavage. Engineering greater fluoride tolerance in bacteria is a problem that must be solved in tandem with enzyme improvement.
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