Skip to content
PaperFren

Catalysis

Evolved RebH chlorinates indoles at C5, C6 or C7

Andorfer MC, Park HJ, Vergara-Coll J, et al. · Chemical science · 2016

Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC

Mass-spectrometry-guided evolution of RebH produced variants that chlorinate tryptamine ortho, meta or para to the indole nitrogen without a synthetic directing group.

Key findings

0S (N470S) raised 7-chlorination yield 2.5-fold at >99% selectivity. 8F reached 85% 6-selectivity and 11-fold more 6-chlorotryptamine than 7M. 8F/10S still select C6/C5 despite weak binding, not the innately reactive C2.

Methodology

Authors screened error-prone and site-saturation libraries of RebH on deuterium-labeled tryptamines by MALDI/LC-MS, then characterised variants 0S, 8F and 10S for 7-, 6- and 5-chlorination including docking versus native tryptophan binding.

Limitations

Docking poses are models; crystal structures of the evolved variants with tryptamine were not solved, so how mutations retune binding remains unproven.

How this study connects

Role on claims

Each row is a claim on a concept or method page where this paper supports, challenges, or qualifies the statement. Roles are hand-checked — not a model guess.

Not yet placed on a claim. This paper has study layers, but no concept page yet cites it as support, challenge, or qualifier.

Related papers in this topic

Same topic cluster — not a recommendation engine.