A novel biocatalyst opens the door to the dipeptide world

摘要

In spite of their potential usefulness,dipeptides have not been widely applied industrially due to the lack of a cost effective method enabling to manufacture them in high purity.A recent discovery of a novel enzyme,L-amino acid alpha-ligase,which forms alpha-dipeptide from unprotected L-amino acids,leads to construct completely new manufacturing processes;a resting cell system and a fermentation process.Both methods,especially the latter one,shall provide dipeptides in low cost without contamination of longer-or racemic-peptides.