• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.974-978
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• 2006

The cytochrome P450 monooxygenase from the pikromycin biosynthetic gene cluster in Streptomyces venezuelae, known as PikC, was observed to hydroxylate the unnatural substrate indole to indigo. Furthermore, the site-directed mutagenesis of PikC monooxygenase led to the mutant enzyme F171Q, in which Phe171 was altered to Gln, with enhanced activity for the hydroxylation of indole. From enzyme kinetic studies, F171Q showed an approximately five-fold higher catalytic efficiency compared with the wild-type PikC. Therefore, these results demonstrate the promising application of P450s originating from Streptomyces, normally involved in polyketide biosynthesis, to generate a diverse array of other industrially useful compounds.