Hydrogen gas is a potential renewable alternative energy carrier that could be used in the future to help supplement humanity’s growing energy needs. Unfortunately, current industrial methods for hydrogen production are expensive or environmentally unfriendly. In recent years research has focused on biological mechanisms for hydrogen production and specifically on hydrogenases, the enzyme responsible for catalyzing the reduction of protons to generate hydrogen. In particular, a better understanding of this enzyme might allow us to generate hydrogen that does not use expensive metals, such as platinum, as catalysts. The soluble hydrogenase I (SHI) from the hyperthermophile Pyrococcus furiosus, a member of the euryarchaeota, has been studied extensively and used in various biotechnological applications. This review summarizes the strategies used in engineering and characterizing three different forms of SHI and the properties of the recombinant enzymes. SHI has also been used in in vitro systems for hydrogen production and NADPH generation and these systems are also discussed.

中文翻译：

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激烈热球菌可溶性氢酶的生产和应用。

氢气是一种潜在的可再生替代能源载体，将来可用于帮助满足人类不断增长的能源需求。不幸的是，当前用于制氢的工业方法昂贵或对环境不利。近年来，研究集中在产生氢的生物学机制上，特别是在氢酶上，该酶负责催化质子的还原以产生氢。特别是，对这种酶的更好理解可能使我们能够产生不使用昂贵的金属（例如铂）作为催化剂的氢。嗜热嗜热球菌的可溶性氢酶I（SHI），是euryarchaeota的成员，已经被广泛研究并用于各种生物技术应用中。这篇综述总结了工程化和表征三种不同形式的SHI的策略以及重组酶的特性。SHI也已用于体外系统中，用于制氢和生成NADPH，并对这些系统进行了讨论。