Assessing acceptor substrate promiscuity of YjiC-mediated glycosylation toward flavonoids

•Diverse sets of polyphenolic flavonoids are glucosylated.•YjiC glucosylates non-regiospecifically to produce multiple glucoside derivatives.•The enzymatic bioconversion is significantly higher.•YjiC has wide acceptor as well as donor substrates flexibility.

The acceptor substrate promiscuity of YjiC, a UDP-glycosyltransferase from Bacillus licheniformis, was explored with seven different classes (flavonols, flavanols, flavones, flavanones, chalcone, stilbene, and isoflavonoids) of 23 flavonoid acceptors. For most of the polyphenols used in the reactions, the enzymatic bioconversion was significantly higher with the production of multiple glucosylated derivatives. This study highlights the highly flexible non-regiospecific glycosylation ability of YjiC toward polyphenolic compounds. The catalytic potential of YjiC could be useful to generate a library of natural product glucosides.

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