Pecoraro, V.L.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2014, 53, 7900-7903, 10.1002/anie.201404925

Protein design will ultimately allow for the creation of artificial enzymes with novel functions and unprecedented stability. To test our current mastery of nature’s approach to catalysis, a ZnII metalloenzyme was prepared using de novo design. α3DH3 folds into a stable single‐stranded three‐helix bundle and binds ZnII with high affinity using His3O coordination. The resulting metalloenzyme catalyzes the hydration of CO2 better than any small molecule model of carbonic anhydrase and with an efficiency within 1400‐fold of the fastest carbonic anhydrase isoform, CAII, and 11‐fold of CAIII.

Arseniyadis, S.; Campagne, J.; Smietana, M.

Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26, 3519-3523, 10.1002/chem.202000516

While artificial cyclases hold great promise in chemical synthesis, this work presents the first example of a DNA-catalyzed inverse electron-demand hetero-Diels–Alder (IEDHDA) between dihydrofuran and various α,β-unsaturated acyl imidazoles. The resulting fused bicyclic O,O-acetals containing three contiguous stereogenic centers are obtained in high yields (up to 99 %) and excellent diastereo- (up to >99:1 dr) and enantioselectivities (up to 95 % ee) using a low catalyst loading. Most importantly, these results show that the concept of DNA-based asymmetric catalysis can be expanded to new synthetic transformations offering an efficient, sustainable, and highly selective tool for the construction of chiral building blocks.

Li, C.

ACS Catal. 2020, 10, 6561-6567, 10.1021/acscatal.0c01203

Developing high-performance DNA-based biocatalysts for desired stereoselective syntheses remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report promising DNA-based catalysts comprised of G-quadruplex (G4) and Fe porphyrin for asymmetric olefin cyclopropanation. After the G4-based catalysts are optimized by several rounds of site mutation, their catalytic enantioselectivities achieve +81% and −86% enantiomeric excess (eetrans) at a turnover number (TON) as high as 500. The Fe porphyrin, binding upon the 5′,3′-end G-quartet, constitutes the active center for olefin cyclopropanation via an iron porphyrin carbene intermediate. The findings provide an opportunity for generating high-value chiral cyclopropane blocks via G4 biocatalysts and shed light on the potential of DNA as protein enzymes for catalysis.

Nelson, H.M.

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2019, 58, 16400-16404, 10.1002/anie.201905333

Herein we report the discovery of a AuI–DNA hybrid catalyst that is compatible with biological media and whose reactivity can be regulated by small complementary nucleic acid sequences. The development of this catalytic system was enabled by the discovery of a novel AuI‐mediated base pair. We found that AuI binds DNA containing C‐T mismatches. In the AuI–DNA catalyst's latent state, the AuI ion is sequestered by the mismatch such that it is coordinatively saturated, rendering it catalytically inactive. Upon addition of an RNA or DNA strand that is complementary to the latent catalyst's oligonucleotide backbone, catalytic activity is induced, leading to a sevenfold increase in the formation of a fluorescent product, forged through a AuI‐catalyzed hydroamination reaction. Further development of this catalytic system will expand not only the chemical space available to synthetic biological systems but also allow for temporal and spatial control of transition‐metal catalysis through gene transcription.