Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Kan SB
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5243118 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Science (New York, N.Y.) 20161101 6315
Enzymes that catalyze carbon-silicon bond formation are unknown in nature, despite the natural abundance of both elements. Such enzymes would expand the catalytic repertoire of biology, enabling living systems to access chemical space previously only open to synthetic chemistry. We have discovered that heme proteins catalyze the formation of organosilicon compounds under physiological conditions via carbene insertion into silicon-hydrogen bonds. The reaction proceeds both in vitro and in vivo, a ...[more]