Numerous bioactive natural products are synthesised by modular polyketide synthases. These compounds can be made in high yield by native multienzyme assembly lines. In contrast, formation of analogues by genetically engineered systems is often considerably less efficient. Biochemical studies on…

Fermentation of renewable feedstocks by microbes to produce sustainably fuels and chemicals has the potential to replace petrochemical-based production. For example, carboxylic acids produced by microbial fermentation can be used to generate primary building blocks of industrial chemicals by either…

Enzymes are powerful biocatalysts, however, so far there is still a large gap between the number of enzyme-based practical applications and that of naturally occurring enzymes. Multiple experimental approaches have been applied to generate nearly all possible mutations of target…