Anniversary Lecture

The mysterious world of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases

Prof. Gideon Davies

The production of "second generation" biofuels from waste polysaccharides, notably cellulose, is a major societal goal. The recalcitrance of these substrates has made this a challenging processes. The recent discovery of lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs, reviewed in Ref. 1) may make biofuels a commercial reality. LPMOs are mononuclear Cu containing enzymes, harnessing the power of molecular oxygen to oxidatively deconstruct polysaccharides. In this lecture Prof. Davies will review the history of LPMOs, controversies over their metal co-factor, the discovery of new enzyme families2,3 and perspectives for the future.

References

1. Hemsworth et al., (2014) Curr Opin Struct Biol 23, 660-668

2. Hemsworth et al., (2014) Nature Chem Biol 10, 122-126

3. Lo Leggio et al., (2015) Nature Communications, 6