Aromatic Ring Hydroxylating Dioxygenases

Aromatic ring hydroxylating dioxygenases play a key role in the biodegradation of numerous environmental pollutants, both in the natural environment (via natural attenuation) and in the engineered bioremediation systems. Recent structural and mechanistic information, together with enzyme engineering and strain construction strategies should allow the development of engineered microorganisms with new and/or optimized degradation abilities. The continued application of these approaches should also facilitate the development of Rieske non-heme iron dioxygenases with requisite selectivities for specific opportunities in target direct biocatalysis or metabolic engineering.