Promiscuous enzymes may be recruited to aid industry, medical fields

Enzymes in cells normally perform only one job, but a new study by a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist might figure out how to recruit enzymes for other jobs to benefit medical fields and industry.

''We know that enzymes usually have one biological function in a cell, but many are capable of doing something quite different, when given substrate molecules – those at the beginning of a chemical reaction – that they don't normally encounter,'' said Dr Margy Glasner, AgriLife Research biochemist in College Station.

Glasner has received more than $767,000 in a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation to study how to make use of the so-called promiscuous enzymes – those that have these hidden abilities in addition to their normal function.

''If mutations improve these hidden abilities, enzymes can evolve new functions that are useful to the organism,'' Glasner said. ''In some cases, mutations cannot improve the promiscuous activity because the enzyme is an evolutionary deadend.''

The key to the research will be understanding how and why certain enzymes are capable of functioning in new jobs so their ability could be applied to help people and the environment.

Her team is trying to determine why one enzyme can evolve a new function but another, related protein cannot. An enzyme is a protein that speeds up the rate of a chemical reaction.