Journal of Biotechnology 88 (2001) 167 – 171 Short communication A P450 BM-3 mutant hydroxylates alkanes, cycloalkanes, arenes and heteroarenes Daniel Appel a , Sabine Lutz-Wahl a , Peter Fischer b , Ulrich Schwaneberg a,1 , Rolf D. Schmid a, * a Institut fu ¨r Technische Biochemie, Uniersita ¨t Stuttgart, Allmandring 31, D-70459 Stuttgart, Germany b Institut fu ¨r Organische Chemie, Uniersita ¨t Stuttgart, Pfaffenwaldring 55, D-70459 Stuttgart, Germany Received 31 August 2000; received in revised form 5 February 2001; accepted 13 February 2001 Abstract P450 monooxygenases from microorganisms, similar to those of eukaryotic mitochondria, display a rather narrow substrate specificity. For native P450 BM-3, no other substrates than fatty acids or an indolyl-fatty acid derivative have been reported (Li, Q.S., Schwaneberg, U., Fischer, P., Schmid, R.D., 2000. Directed evolution of the fatty-acid hydroxylase P450BM-3 into an indole-hydroxylating catalyst. Chem. Eur. J. 6 (9), 1531 – 1536). Engineering the substrate specificity of Bacillus megaterium cytochrome P-450 BM3: hydroxylation of alkyl trimethylammonium compounds. Biochem. J. 327, 537 – 544). We thus were quite surprised to observe, in the course of our investigations on the rational evolution of this enzyme towards mutants, capable of hydroxylating shorter-chain fatty acids, that a triple mutant P450 BM-3 (Phe87Val, Leu188-Gln, Ala74Gly, BM-3 mutant) could efficiently hydroxylate indole, leading to the formation of indigo and indirubin (Li, Q.S., Schwaneberg, U., Fischer, P., Schmid, R.D., 2000. Directed evolution of the fatty-acid hydroxylase P450BM-3 into an indole-hydroxylating catalyst. Chem. Eur. J. 6 (9), 1531–1536). Indole is not oxidized by the wild-type enzyme; it lacks the carboxylate group by which the proper fatty acid substrates are supposed to be bound at the active site of the native enzyme, via hydrogen bonds to the charged amino acid residues Arg47 and Tyr51. Our attempts to predict the putative binding mode of indole to P450 BM-3 or the triple mutant by molecular dynamics simulations did not provide any useful clue. Encouraged by the unexpected activity of the triple mutant towards indole, we investigated in a preliminary, but systematic manner several alkanes, alicyclic, aromatic, and heterocyclic compounds, all of which are unaffected by the native enzyme, for their potential as substrates. We here report that this triple mutant indeed is capable to hydroxylate a respectable range of other substrates, all of which bear little or no resemblance to the fatty acid substrates of the native enzyme. © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. www.elsevier.com/locate/jbiotec * Corresponding author. Tel.: +49-711-6853192; fax: +49-711-6853196. E-mail address: rolf.d.schmid@rus.uni-stuttgart.de (R.D. Schmid). 1 Present address: Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. 0168-1656/01/$ - see front matter © 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII:S0168-1656(01)00249-8