Designing a novel (R)-ω-transaminase for asymmetric synthesis of sitagliptin intermediate via motif swapping and semi-rational design

The application of (R)-ω-transaminases as biocatalysts for chiral amine synthesis has been hampered by inadequate stereoselectivity and narrow substrate spectrum. Herein, an effective evolution strategy for (R)-ω-transaminase designing for the asymmetric synthesis of sitagliptin intermediate is presented. Since natural transaminases lack activity toward bulky prositagliptin ketone, transaminase scaffolds with catalytic machinery and activity toward the truncated prositagliptin ketone were firstly screened based on substrate walking principle. A transaminase chimera was established synchronously conferring catalytic activity and (R)-selectivity toward prositagliptin ketone through motif swapping, followed by stepwise evolution. The process resulted in a "best" engineered variant MwTAM8, which exhibited 79.2-fold higher activity than the chimeric scaffold MwTAMc. Structural analysis revealed that the heightened activity is mainly due to the enlarged and adaptive substrate pocket and tunnel. The novel (R)-transaminase exhibited unsatisfied industrial operation stability, which is expected to further modify the protein to enhance its tolerance to temperature, pH, and organic solvents to meet sustainable industrial demands. This study underscores a useful evolution strategy of engineering biocatalysts to confer new properties and functions on enzymes for synthesizing high-value drug intermediates.