The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, 2800, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark.
Chembiochem. 2020 Sep 14;21(18):2551-2571. doi: 10.1002/cbic.202000091. Epub 2020 May 13.
The diversity of life relies on a handful of chemical elements (carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulfur and phosphorus) as part of essential building blocks; some other atoms are needed to a lesser extent, but most of the remaining elements are excluded from biology. This circumstance limits the scope of biochemical reactions in extant metabolism - yet it offers a phenomenal playground for synthetic biology. Xenobiology aims to bring novel bricks to life that could be exploited for (xeno)metabolite synthesis. In particular, the assembly of novel pathways engineered to handle nonbiological elements (neometabolism) will broaden chemical space beyond the reach of natural evolution. In this review, xeno-elements that could be blended into nature's biosynthetic portfolio are discussed together with their physicochemical properties and tools and strategies to incorporate them into biochemistry. We argue that current bioproduction methods can be revolutionized by bridging xenobiology and neometabolism for the synthesis of new-to-nature molecules, such as organohalides.
生命的多样性依赖于少数几种化学元素（碳、氧、氢、氮、硫和磷）作为基本构建块的一部分；还有一些其他的原子在较小程度上是必需的，但大多数剩余的元素都被排除在生物学之外。这种情况限制了现存代谢中生化反应的范围——但它为合成生物学提供了一个极好的游乐场。异源生物学旨在为（异源）代谢物合成带来新的砖块。特别是，设计用于处理非生物元素的新途径的组装（新代谢）将拓宽化学空间，超出自然进化的范围。在这篇综述中，讨论了可以融入自然生物合成组合的异源元素，以及它们的物理化学性质以及将它们纳入生物化学的工具和策略。我们认为，通过将异源生物学和新代谢结合起来合成新的天然分子，如有机卤化物，可以彻底改变当前的生物生产方法。
