Multienzyme Cascade Reactions—Status and Recent Advances

Abstract

Cascade reactions catalyzed by multienzymatic systems have strongly moved into the focus of researchers in the field of biocatalysis because of their unique potential for the environmentally benign production of chemicals and materials. Inspired by Nature’s ingenuity, considerable progress has been made in recent years to develop multistep reactions that combine the synthetic power of several enzymes in one pot. In addition, the combination of this biocatalytic power with the potential of chemical reactions, man-made transition-metal catalysts, and metalloenzymes has even further widened the repertoire of possible catalyzed reaction schemes. In this Review, we describe recent developments with respect to major challenges and solutions in the field of multienzyme cascade reactions, covering recent concurrent and sequential approaches with three or more enzymes in linear sequence as well as chemo-enzymatic reactions that combine a chemical step with at least two different enzymes over the last six years.