Strategies for recombinant laccase expression and their roles in environmental remediation.
Bannach-Machado I, Maia RT, Peralta RM, de Souza CGM, Haminiuk CWI
Phytoremediation
Engineered fungal enzymes like laccases could soon be deployed to break down pesticide residues and industrial dyes lurking in the soil of your vegetable garden or local park, offering a biological alternative to harsh chemical remediation.
Fungi and bacteria make special proteins called laccases that act like molecular scissors, snipping apart pollutants and toxic chemicals. Scientists have struggled to produce enough of these proteins from their natural sources, so they've been learning how to manufacture them more efficiently in the lab using genetic tricks. This review rounds up the best methods discovered between 2019 and 2025 for making these biological cleanup tools, and examines how well they actually work for detoxifying contaminated soil and water.
Key Findings
Multiple engineering strategies — including codon optimization, targeted mutagenesis, and computational protein design — have meaningfully improved recombinant laccase yields over native-source production
Both fungal and bacterial laccases show promise for environmental remediation, but each expression system involves distinct trade-offs in enzyme activity, stability, and cost
The 2019–2025 scoping period reflects a surge in computational approaches (e.g., AI-assisted enzyme design) alongside classical molecular biology methods for optimizing laccase expression
chevron_right Technical Summary
Laccases are enzymes produced by fungi and bacteria that can break down a remarkable range of toxic compounds. This review surveys six years of research on engineering these enzymes in the lab to overcome production limitations and improve their use in cleaning up polluted environments.
Abstract Preview
Laccases are multicopper enzymes capable of oxidizing a wide variety of compounds, standing out as green tools for industrial and environmental applications. However, production from native sources...
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