Multienzymatic synthesis of nucleic acid derivatives: a general perspective

Abstract

Living cells are most perfect synthetic factory. The surprising synthetic efficiency of biological systems is allowed by the combination of multiple processes catalyzed by enzymes working sequentially. In this sense, biocatalysis tries to reproduce nature’s synthetic strategies to perform the synthesis of different organic compounds using natural catalysts such as cells or enzymes. Nowadays, the use of multienzymatic systems in biocatalysis is becoming a habitual strategy for the synthesis of organic compounds that leads to the realization of complex synthetic schemes. By combining several steps in one pot, a significant step economy can be realized and the potential for environmentally benign synthesis is improved. Using this sustainable synthetic system, several work-up steps can be avoided and pure products are ideally isolated after a series of reactions in one single vessel after just one straightforward purification step. In recent years, enzymatic methodology for the preparation of nucleic acid derivatives (NADs) has become a standard technique for the synthesis of a wide variety of natural NADs. Enzymatic methods have been shown to be an efficient alternative for the synthesis of nucleoside and nucleotide analogs to the traditional multistep chemical methods, since chemical glycosylation reactions include several protection–deprotection steps and the use of chemical reagents and organic solvents that are expensive and environmentally harmful. In this minireview, we want to illustrate what we consider the most current relevant examples of in vivo and in vitro multienzymatic systems used for the synthesis of nucleic acid derivatives showing advantages and disadvantages of each methodology. Finally, a detailed perspective about the impact of -omics in multienzymatic systems has been described.