Manganese peroxidase (MnP) from white-rot basidomycete Phanerochaete chrysosporium initiates degradation of lignin in wood, which is the most abundant aromatic polymer on the earth. It catalyzes a peroxide dependent oxidation of Mn(II) to Mn(III), which in turn chelates with organic acids. This complex acts as the redox mediator that oxidizes the lignin, which otherwise is not amenable to enzymatic hydrolysis. We have reported the crystal structure of MnP at 2.0 E. The MnP crystals, when flash-frozen in liquid nitrogen stream, diffract to about 1.0 E resolution in synchrotron X-ray source. The present proposal requests beam-time on SSRL's BL9-1 to collect data for ultra-high resolution structure refinement.
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