Industrial biocatalysts, especially for the production of pharmaceuticals and other fine chemicals, are in growing demand due to their high specificity, and lower environmental cost resulting from their inherent renewability and comparatively mild reaction conditions when compared to classical catalysts. 

The deazaflavin cofactor F420 is involved in a range of important redox reactions in bacteria and archaea. However, there are aspects of the F420 biosynthetic pathway that remain unclear…