page_title: Deoxyribose-phosphate aldolase
section_title: Industrial Relevance
hierarchical_section_title: Deoxyribose-phosphate aldolase / Industrial Relevance
caption_attribution_description: English: DERA used in Atorvastatin biocatalysis. The portion of Atorvastatin which was derived from the DERA catalyzed reaction is indicated.
context_page_description: In enzymology, a deoxyribose-phosphate aldolase is an enzyme that catalyzes the reversible chemical reaction
  2-deoxy-D-ribose 5-phosphate D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate + acetaldehyde
  Hence, this enzyme has one substrate, 2-deoxy-D-ribose 5-phosphate, and two products, D-glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and acetaldehyde.
  This enzyme belongs to the family of lyases, specifically the aldehyde-lyases, which cleave carbon-carbon bonds. The systematic name of this enzyme class is 2-deoxy-D-ribose-5-phosphate acetaldehyde-lyase. Other names in common use include phosphodeoxyriboaldolase, deoxyriboaldolase, deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase, 2-deoxyribose-5-phosphate aldolase, and 2-deoxy-D-ribose-5-phosphate acetaldehyde-lyase.
context_section_description: DERA is being used in chemical syntheses as a tool for green, enantioselective aldol reactions. Formation of the deoxyribose skeleton from small molecules can facilitate the synthesis of nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors. For example, DERA was used in a mixture of five enzymes in the biocatalytic synthesis of islatravir.
  DERA has also been used to perform tandem aldol reactions with three aldehyde substrates, with reaction equilibrium driven by the formation of the six-membered cyclic hemiacetal. This intermediate has been used in the synthesis of statin drugs, such as atorvastatin, rosuvastatin and mevastatin.
  Natural DERAs show low tolerance to high concentrations of acetaldehyde due to the formation of the highly reactive crotonaldehyde intermediate that irreversibly inactivates the enzyme. This features hampers the industrial applications of DERA as the concentration of acetaldehyde used will be limited. To overcome this, directed evolution has been used to improve the acetaldehyde tolerance of DERA to up to 400mM.
caption: DERA used in Atorvastatin biocatalysis. The portion of Atorvastatin which was derived from the DERA catalyzed reaction is indicated.
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