Transketolases

Transketolase is an ubiquitous enzyme which has not yet finished revealing all its secrets. This Methods in Enzymology: Transketolases volume is devoted to the description of cutting-edge methods to its study in biochemistry. Several topics are addressed by world experts in their field.The first part of this volume deals with transketolase at the cellular level. The latest scientific progress on human transketolase TKL1 in relation to certain diseases and to its inhibition are discussed including the involvement of this enzyme in new metabolic pathways or as a diagnostic biomarker.The second part focuses on transketolase at the molecular level. The structural and mechanistic aspects linked to this enzyme are addressed using several approaches including molecular modelling and crystallography, for example. Finally, the experimental methodological approaches relating to the use of transketolase as a tool of choice in biocatalysis is presented.

Franck CHARMANTRAY is a researcher in Biocatalysis at the CNRS. He carries out his research work at the Institute of Chemistry in Clermont-Ferrand (ICCF, UMR6296, Clermont Auvergne University, France). In 2001, he obtained a PhD in medicinal chemistry focusing on « A new family of DNA intercalating-alkylating agents » under the supervision of Dr. M. Demuynck, Grenoble 1 University, France. He then changed his research theme to focus on Studies on Homocitrate Synthase and other Lysine Pathway Enzymes during a postdoctoral internship funded by a BBRSC Fellowship, and carried out under the supervision of Prof. D. Young, at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. He returned to France to carry out a 2-year industrial postdoctoral internship in Biocatalysis financed by Laboratoires Fournier and which focused on the chemoenzymatic synthesis of antithrombotics. He was then recruited at the ICCF as a CNRS researcher in 2004. His research themes concern Biocatalysis, and in particular the study and optimization of transketolase by in vitro evolution for the synthesis of rare sugars and analogues in particular. He works in close collaboration with Dr. Bastien Doumèche with whom he recently developed an electrochemical screening for microbial transketolase inhibitors identification.