Tuning Biphenyl Dioxygenase for Extended Substrate Specificity and Enhanced Activity

Abstract : At the time when public concern about PCBs contamination in the environment is increasing, there is also an increasing interest in the development of novel biodegradation processes that can rapidly and effectively remove PCB's. However, some of the PCB congeners are known to be very resistant to aerobic biodegradation, particularly in the initial attack by the biphenyl dioxygenases. We seek to broaden the substrate specificity of biphenyl dioxygenase from Pseudomonas sp.