Trehalose is a molecule involved in the stress response of microbes, some invertebrates, and plants. Analogs of trehalose have emerged as potential antimicrobial agents, and nondigestible trehalose analogs may be useful as calorie-free food supplements. The enzyme TreT uses UDP glucose and glucose as substrates to make trehalose. We have used the enzyme TreT to synthesize trehalose analogs by exploiting its promiscuity for accepting glucose analogs. This allows us to synthesize trehalose analogs must faster and cheaper than traditional organic synthesis. However, the reaction requires UDP glucose, which is relatively expensive. To overcome this limitation, we added an excess of trehalose to the reaction, forcing the equilibrium to favor the reactants, and thus UDP glucose synthesis. Since UDP and trehalose are much cheaper than UDP glucose, this may be an inexpensive way to synthesize UDP glucose for enzymatic applications.<br/>

Chemoenzymatic synthesis of UDP glucose by reversing the direction of the trehalose synthase TreT

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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