Laccases: a never-ending story.
Laccases (benzenediol:oxygen oxidoreductases, EC 1.10.3.2) are blue multicopper oxidases that catalyze the oxidation of an array of aromatic substrates concomitantly with the reduction of molecular oxygen to water. In fungi, laccases carry out a variety of physiological roles during their life cycle. These enzymes are being increasingly evaluated for a variety of biotechnological applications due to their broad substrate range. In this review, the most recent studies on laccase structural features and catalytic mechanisms along with analyses of their expression are reported and examined with the aim of contributing to the discussion on their structure-function relationships. Attention has also been paid to the properties of enzymes endowed with unique characteristics and to fungal laccase multigene families and their organization.
Giardina
Paola
P
Dipartimento di Chimica Organica e Biochimica, Complesso Universitario Monte S. Angelo, 80126 Naples, Italy. giardina@unina.it
Faraco
Vincenza
V
Pezzella
Cinzia
C
Piscitelli
Alessandra
A
Vanhulle
Sophie
S
Sannia
Giovanni
G
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D020134:Catalytic Domain; D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D005658:Fungi / Q000201:enzymology; D042845:Laccase / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
D003300:Copper; D042845:Laccase