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A New Class of Enzymes Discovered: A Non-Heme Oxidase Produces Medium-Chain 1-Alkenes†
†
I thank Uwe Bornscheuer and Johannes Kabisch from the University of Greifswald (Germany) for fruitful discussions on microbial olefin synthesis.
Graphical Abstract
The recently discovered non-heme oxidase UndA catalyzes the conversion of lauric acid into 1-undecene. For the discovery, an impressive number of 6000 bacterial clones bearing a genome library of Pseudomonas fluorescens had to be screened by gas chromatography. The discovery of UndA is a breakthrough, as it paves the way towards the biotechnological production of medium-chain 1-alkenes from renewable materials.
