Hepatotoxic aflatoxins have found a worthy adversary in two new families of bacterial oxidoreductases. These enzymes use the reduced coenzyme F420 to initiate the degradation of furanocoumarin compounds, including the major mycotoxin products of Aspergillus flavus. Along with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate synthases and aryl nitroreductases, these proteins form a large and versatile superfamily of flavin and deazaflavin-dependent oxidoreductases. F420-dependent members of this family appear to share a common mechanism of hydride transfer from the reduced, low-potential deazaflavin to the electron-deficient ring systems of their substrates.
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