Engineering dioxygenases for efficient degradation of environmental pollutants.

Dioxygenases have recently been engineered to improve their capabilities for environmental pollutant degradation. The techniques used to achieve this include in vitro DNA shuffling and subunit or domain exchanges between dioxygenases of different bacterial origins. Such evolved enzymes acquire novel and enhanced degradation capabilities of xenobiotic compounds, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, trichloroethylene and a variety of aromatic compounds. Hybrid strains in which the evolved genes are integrated into the chromosomal operons exhibit efficient degradation of xenobiotic chlorinated compounds.