This is a pioneering work published in the top journal (1/31 in soil science= on diversity of bacterial laccases in soil, which demonstrates that laccases are widespread in bacteria and may be more important than fungal laccases. A new primer was constructed to retrieve larger fragments of the putative bacterial laccase genes and both “conventional” 3-domain laccases and the recently described 2-domain small laccases were obtained, demonstrating the potential of the primer for discovering laccase-like sequences in bacterial strains and in environmental samples.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3874680
Laccases are extracellular enzymes, belonging to copper–containing oxidases. Fungal laccases are part of the ligninolytic system, which enables fungi the degradation of lignin. Laccases catalyze monoelectronic oxidation of various organic substrates, which occurs concomitantly with the reduction of molecular oxygen to water. The reaction generates cation free radicals. Because of their high nonspecific oxidative capacity, laccases are useful for a wide range of biotechnological applications, which may be broadened with the use of laccase–mediator system.
COBISS.SI-ID: 1891209