Chemical Aspects Of Enzyme Biotechnology: Fundamentals (industry-university Cooperative Chemistry Program Symposia)

The Industry-University Cooperative Chemistry Program has sponsored seven previous international symposia covering a wide variety of topics of interest to industrial and academic chemists. The eighth IUCCP symposium, held March 19-22, 1990, at Texas A & M University, represents a deviation from the former symposia, in that it is the first of a two-symposium series dedicated to the rapidly moving new field of industrial biochemistry that has beco~e known as biotechnology. Biotechnology is really not a new discipline, but rather is a term coined to describe the new and exciting commercial applications of biochemistry. The development of the field of biotechnology is a direct result of recombinant DNA technology, which began in earnest about 15 years ago. Today, we can routinely do experiments that were inconceivable in the early 1970's. Only comparatively simple technology available even in small laboratories is required to synthesize a gene and from it, to produce vast amounts of biological materials of enormous commercial value. These technical developments and others have stimulated increased activities in the field of enzyme biotechnology, using enzymes to catalyze "unnatural" reactions to produce complex molecules with stereochemical precision. It is true today, we can readily produce DNA fragments that will encode any amino acid sequence that we might desire, but at this point, our foundation of basic knowledge falls short. The dream of "designer enzymes" is still a fantasy, but the current wave of research activity and exciting new developments suggest that in the future the dream may become a reality Front Matter....Pages i-ix Effect of Metal Ions and Adenylylation State on the Energetics of the E. Coli Glutamine Synthetase Reaction....Pages 1-8 Structure-Function Relationships in Mandelate Racemase and Muconate Lactonizing Enzyme....Pages 9-21 An Enzyme-Targeted Herbicide Design Program Based on EPSP Synthase: Chemical Mechanism and Glyphosate Inhibition Studies....Pages 23-39 Mechanism of Enyzmatic Phosphotriester Hydrolysis....Pages 41-52 Proline Isomerization and Protein Folding....Pages 53-64 Increasing Enzyme Stability....Pages 65-75 A Study of Subunit Folding and Dimer Assembly In Vivo ....Pages 77-86 Characterization of a Transient intermediate in the Folding of Dihydrofolate Reductase....Pages 87-93 From Biological Diversity to Structure-Function Analysis: Protein Engineering in Aspartate Transcarbamoylase....Pages 95-109 Catalytic Antibodies: Perspectives and Prospects....Pages 111-121 Potent and Selective Oxytocin Antagonists Obtained by Chemical Modification of a Streptomyces Silvensis Derived Cyclic Hexapeptide and by Total Synthesis....Pages 123-134 Design of Peptide Ligands that Interact with Specific Membrane Receptors....Pages 135-149 Stereoselective Synthesis of Biologically and Pharmacologically Important Chemicals with Microbial Enzymes....Pages 151-163 Design and Development of Enzymatic Organic Synthesis....Pages 165-178 Enzymes as Catalysts in Carbohydrate Synthesis....Pages 179-195 Exploiting Enzyme Selectivity for the Synthesis of Biologically Active Compounds....Pages 197-212 Perspectives on the Discovery of Vitamin B 12 ....Pages 213-221 Steric Course and Mechanism of Coenzyme B 12 -Dependent Rearrangements....Pages 223-234 On the Mechanism of Action of Vitamin B 12 : A Non-Free Radical Model for the Methylmalonyl-CoA — Succinyl-CoA Rearrangement....Pages 235-244 Vitamin B 12 : The Biosynthesis of the Tetrapyrrole Ring: Mechanism and Molecular Biology....Pages 245-264 Biosynthesis of Vitamin B 12 : Biosynthetic and Synthetic Researches....Pages 265-280 On the Methylation Process and Cobalt Insertion in Cobyrinic Acid Biosynthesis....Pages 281-298 Biochemical and Genetic Studies on Vitamin B 12 Synthesis in Pseudomonas dentrificans ....Pages 299-315 Genetic Approaches to the Synthesis and Physiological Significance of B12 in Salmonella typhimurium ....Pages 317-332 Mechanistic and Evolutionary Aspects of Vitamin B 12 Biosynthesis....Pages 333-354 Back Matter....Pages 355-359