Hydroxylation is catalysed by a set of oxygen-dependent enzymes that belong to the 2-oxoglutarate-dependent-oxygenase superfamily, which are, in fact, non-haem, Fe 2+-dependent enzymes .

Monooxygenase enzymes incorporating an oxygen-bridged diiron cluster in the catalytic site represent a new class of enzymes that perform β-hydroxylation of amino acids, reports a research group ...

In these systems, the enzyme contains two distinct domains: a radical SAM domain responsible for catalysing cyclization and a hydroxylase domain for catalysing hydroxylation.

Researchers defined the structure of a substrate-bound iron 2-oxoglutarate (Fe/2OG) enzyme to explore whether these enzymes could be used to create a wide array of molecules. They saw that Fe/2OG ...

These enzymes speed up the reaction in each respective step to synthesize serotonin. Scientists have considered hydroxylation by tryptophan and enzyme TPH-1 the standard pathway for several decades.

The flexible new method, for "directed C—H hydroxylation with molecular oxygen," does what only natural enzymes have been able to do until now. It's described in a paper this week in Science .