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Colorless green ideas. . .

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 333–334 (1999)Cite this article

Who among us hasn't wondered where, exactly, that other red sock has disappeared to, only to find that one's entire collection of white laundry now exhibits a decidedly pinkish tint? In this issue, Joel Cherry and coworkers1 at Novo-Nordisk (Bagsvaerd, Denmark) describe the directed evolution of a heme peroxidase (CiP), isolated from the inkcap mushroom Coprinus cinereus . CiP acts as a dye-transfer inhibitor in laundry detergent by decolorizing free dyes that have leached out of clothing, thereby preventing their reuptake by other garments. This paper represents far more than an end to the terror of the lone red sock, however. Cherry et al. combine protein variations made by both rational and empirical methods to increase the thermal and oxidative stability of CiP, an approach that has the potential to improve biocatalysts for a wide variety of applications.

Enzymes offer a number of advantages over traditional chemical catalysts. They function at moderate temperatures, often allow the elimination of toxic solvents and reactants, and are themselves entirely biodegradable. The extent to which enzyme-catalyzed "green chemistry" is practiced, however, is still quite limited. Proteases for laundry detergents compose a quarter of the entire world enzyme market, and the production of high-fructose corn syrup is the largest volume enzymatic chemical process. Despite significant additional applications in baking and food processing, pulp bleaching, fabric processing, and the manufacture of a large number of specialty chemicals (most notably in the pharmaceutical area), enzyme catalysis today has vastly more potential than is actually being realized.

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Figure 1: A schematic of the various approaches to gene shuffling by homologous recombination in yeast.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. staff scientist at Maxygen, Inc., 515 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, 94063 , CA

    Matthew Tobin

  2. VP biocatalysis and bioprocessing at Maxygen, Inc., 515 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, 94063, CA

    Joseph A. Affholter

  3. VP research and development at Maxygen, Inc., 515 Galveston Drive, Redwood City , 94063, CA

    Willem P.C. Stemmer

  4. group leader, core technologies at Maxygen, Inc., 515 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, 94063 , CA

    Jeremy Minshull

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  4. Jeremy Minshull
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Tobin, M., Affholter, J., Stemmer, W. et al. Colorless green ideas. . .. Nat Biotechnol 17, 333–334 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/7886

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