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Chitin-derived platforms are emerging as valuable chemical entities for the construction of nitrogenous fine chemicals in processes independent of Haber ammonia. However, much of the work in this area has...

in this article, the authors describe a colorimetric, high-throughput assay suitable for optimizing the activity of the recently discovered sulfotransferase Lipb, by directed evolution. crucially, Lipb uses para-nitrophenol sulfate as donor in the sulfation of the nucleoside antibiotic liposidomycin b-i and other acceptor surrogates. thus, using a robotic liquid-handling device, crude cell extracts were prepared from an Escherichia coli strain that overproduced Lipb in wells of a microplate, and production of para-nitrophenol at 405 nm was monitored spectrophotometrically. enzyme activity could be detected only in the presence of both Lipb substrates and overexpressed Lipb. the screen displays a suitable standard deviation for directed evolution and importantly is not limited to the natural desulfo-liposidomycin acceptor. the authors plan to use the screen to identify Lipb variants with altered acceptor specificity and promiscuity for use in sulfation of natural products and other small-molecule therapeutics. (Journal of Biomolecular Screening. 2011;16:845-851)

Phosphorus (P) compounds play a crucial role in modern society; fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides that maintain global crop outputs and many life-saving pharmaceuticals all contain P. Most P-compounds are sourced...

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