New enzymes for chemical synthesis exploring natural product biosynthesis

As a result of recent advances in large-scale DNA sequencing and enzyme directed evolution technologies, biocatalysis is becoming a transformational technology uniquely suited for chemical synthesis and green chemistry development. Nature has; evolved enzymes to create molecules that range from simple gases to complex natural products, yet many of these tools remain unutilized by synthetic chemists. in order to further expand the synthetic applications of biotransformation, it is essential that biocatalysts display attributes complementary or superior to chemical catalysis, such as high synthetic efficiency, exquisite stereocontrol and use of economic starting materials. In this review, several new classes of enzymatic transformations deriving from natural product biosynthesis are selected to discuss their potential for chemical synthesis.