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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Microbial aromatic catabolism offers a promising approach to convert lignin, a vast source of renewable carbon, into useful products. Aryl-O-demethylation is an essential biochemical reaction to ultimately catabolize coniferyl and sinapyl lignin-derived aromatic compounds, and is often a key bottleneck for both native and engineered bioconversion pathways. Here, we report the comprehensive characterization of a promiscuous P450 aryl-O-demethylase, consisting of a cytochrome P450 protein from the family CYP255A (GcoA) and a three-domain reductase (GcoB) that together represent a new two-component P450 class. Though originally described as converting guaiacol to catechol, we show that this system efficiently demethylates both guaiacol and an unexpectedly wide variety of lignin-relevant monomers. Structural, biochemical, and computational studies of this novel two-component system elucidate the mechanism of its broad substrate specificity, presenting it as a new tool for a critical step in biological lignin conversion.

A promiscuous cytochrome P450 aromatic O-demethylase for lignin bioconversion.,Mallinson SJB, Machovina MM, Silveira RL, Garcia-Borras M, Gallup N, Johnson CW, Allen MD, Skaf MS, Crowley MF, Neidle EL, Houk KN, Beckham GT, DuBois JL, McGeehan JE Nat Commun. 2018 Jun 27;9(1):2487. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04878-2. PMID:29950589^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.