Rationalization of stereoselectivity in enzyme reactions

Enzymes are responsible for more than 5,000 different types of biochemical reactions. Enzymes speed up various chemical reactions in cell that would otherwise take millions of years to occur in milliseconds. The ability to discriminate between optical isomers is vital for living systems. The selective formation of only one product stereoisomer from achiral substrates is one of the most sophisticated tasks for enzymes. Because of the importance of stereoselectivity in biology, the structural and mechanistic basis underlying these phenomena has become the subject of intensive research. Enzymatic reactions provide the basis of cellular biochemistry and typically display high stereoselectivity. With the advances of enzyme engineering, in vitro evolution and, especially, computational rational design, scientists start to provide various methods and tools to manipulate the stereoselective properties of enzymes. To gain an insightful view of stereoselectivity in enzyme reactions, we present an extensive discussion on the latest progresses in this area. This article is categorized under: Structure and Mechanism > Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics Structure and Mechanism > Reaction Mechanisms and Catalysis Molecular and Statistical Mechanics > Molecular Dynamics and Monte‐Carlo Methods Enzyme stereoselectivity can be rationally designed, guided by computational methods.