Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes. By controlling information flow through biochemical signalling and the flow of chemical energy through metabolism, biochemical processes give rise to the incredible complexity of life. As our understanding of how various agents can cause harm to humans and other organisms, a more descriptive definition of toxicology is "the study of the adverse effects of chemicals or physical agents on living organisms". Laccases exhibit an extraordinary natural substrate range (phenols, polyphenols, anilines, aryl diamines, methoxy-substituted phenols, hydroxyindols, benzenethiols, inorganic/organic metal compounds and many others) which is the major reason for their attractiveness for dozens of biotechnological applications. Moreover, in the presence of small molecules, known as redox mediators, laccases enhance their substrate specificity. Indeed, laccase oxidizes the mediator and the generated radical oxidizes the substrate by mechanisms different from the enzymatic one, enabling the oxidative transformation of substrates with high redox potentials-otherwise not oxidized by the enzyme. The industrial applicability of laccase may therefore be extended by the use of a laccase-mediator system (LMS).

By Sankar Sen and Jayashree Ahuja