Genome organization, enzyme differences

Human serum biotinidase has been purified to homogeneity and characterized. The cDNA that encodes for the enzyme and the genomic organization have been elucidated. The gene that encodes for the serum enzyme has been localized to chromosome 3p25. Over 100 different mutations that cause biotinidase deficiency have been identified. 

The MTHFRs of Arabidopsis and maize have recently been cloned by genomics-based approaches, based on homology with the enzymes from other organisms.17 Like mammalian MTHFRs, the plant enzymes were found to be homodimers of two-domain subunits that are homologous to the mammalian enzymes throughout both domains. However, when the recombinant plant proteins were expressed in yeast, they were found to differ radically from the mammalian MTHFRs in both their pyridine nucleotide preference and their regulatory properties plant enzymes prefer NADH to NADPH, and they are insensitive to AdoMet.17... 

An impressive one-pot six-step enzymatic synthesis of riboflavine from glucose on the laboratory scale has been reported with an overall yield of 35-50%. Six different enzymes are involved in the various synthesis steps, while two other enzymes take care for the in situ cofactor regenerations [12]. This example again shows that many more multi-enzyme cascade conversions will be developed in the near future, as a much greater variety of enzymes in sufficient amounts for organic synthetic purposes will become available through rapid developments in genomics and proteomics. 

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