近日，英国爱丁堡大学Wallace, Stephen团队研究了了大肠杆菌中的生物相容性Lossen重排。2025年6月23日，《自然-化学》杂志发表了这一成果。

大自然已经进化出一套精致而有限的化学反应，支撑着所有生物的功能。相比之下，合成有机化学领域可以获得在自然界中观察不到的反应性，并且将这些非生物反应整合到生命系统中，为从可再生原料中可持续合成许多工业化学品提供了一个简明的解决方案。

研究组报道了一种生物相容性的Lossen重排，这种重排是由大肠杆菌中的磷酸盐催化的，用于将活化的酰基羟酸盐转化为活细胞中含有初级胺的代谢物。通过营养不良保护，研究组展示了这种新的自然反应如何通过产生必需代谢物对氨基苯甲酸来控制微生物生长和化学。Lossen重排底物也可以由聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯合成，并应用于全细胞生物催化反应和发酵，产生体内小分子（包括药物对乙酰氨基酚），为在天然和工程生物系统中生物修复和升级回收塑料废物的一般策略铺平了道路。

附：英文原文

Title: A biocompatible Lossen rearrangement in Escherichia coli

Author: Johnson, Nick W., Valenzuela-Ortega, Marcos, Thorpe, Thomas W., Era, Yuta, Kjeldsen, Annemette, Mulholland, Keith, Wallace, Stephen

Issue&Volume: 2025-06-23

Abstract: Nature has evolved an exquisite yet limited set of chemical reactions that underpin the function of all living organisms. By contrast, the field of synthetic organic chemistry can access reactivity not observed in nature, and integration of these abiotic reactions within living systems offers an elegant solution to the sustainable synthesis of many industrial chemicals from renewable feedstocks. Here we report a biocompatible Lossen rearrangement that is catalysed by phosphate in the bacterium Escherichia coli for the transformation of activated acyl hydroxamates to primary amine-containing metabolites in living cells. Through auxotroph rescue, we demonstrate how this new-to-nature reaction can be used to control microbial growth and chemistry by generating the essential metabolite para-aminobenzoic acid. The Lossen rearrangement substrate can also be synthesized from polyethylene terephthalate and applied to whole-cell biocatalytic reactions and fermentations generating industrial small molecules (including the drug paracetamol), paving the way for a general strategy to bioremediate and upcycle plastic waste in native and engineered biological systems.

DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01845-5

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41557-025-01845-5