Identification of four alcohol oxidases from methylotrophic yeasts

Profiling of koumiss microbiota and organic acids and their effects on koumiss taste

BACKGROUND

Koumiss is a naturally fermented mare's milk. Over recent decades, numerous studies have revealed the diversity of lactic acid bacteria in koumiss. However, there is limited information available regarding its secondary major component yeast profile.

RESULTS

A total of 119 bacterial and 36 yeast species were identified among the 14 koumiss samples. The dominant bacterial species in koumiss were Lactobacillus helveticus, Lactobacillus kefiranofaciens, Lactococcus lactis, Lactococcus raffinolactis, and Citrobacter freundii. The main yeast species were Dekkera anomala, Kazachstania unispora, Meyerozyma caribbica, Pichia sp.BZ159, Kluyveromyces marxianus, and uncultured Guehomyces. The bacterial and yeast Shannon diversity of the Xilinhaote-urban group were higher than those of the Xilingol-rural group. The most dominant organic acids were lactic, acetic, tartaric, and malic acids. Lactic acid bacteria species were mostly responsible for the accumulation of those organic acids, although Kazachstania unispora, Dekkera anomala, and Meyerozyma caribbica may also have contributed. Redundancy analysis suggested that both bacteria and yeast respond to koumiss flavor, such as Lactobacillus helveticus and Dekkera anomala are associated with sourness, astringency, bitterness, and aftertaste, whereas Lactococcus lactis and Kazachstania unispora are associated with umami.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggest that differences were observed in koumiss microbiota of Xilinhaote-urban and Xilingol-rural samples. The biodiversity of the former was higher than the latter group. Positive or negative correlations between bacteria and yeast species and taste also were found.

Purification, characterization, and stabilization of alcohol oxidase from Ogataea thermomethanolica

Alcohol oxidase (AOX) functions in oxidation of primary alcohols into the corresponding aldehydes with potential on catalyzing synthesis reactions in chemical industry. In this study, AOX from a thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast, Ogataea thermomethanolica (OthAOX) was purified to high homogeneity using a single step chromatographic separation on a DEAE-Sepharose column. The purified OthAOX had a specific activity of 15.34 U/mg with 77.5% recovery yield. The enzyme worked optimally at 50 °C in an alkaline range (pH 9.0). According to kinetic analysis, OthAOX showed a higher affinity toward short-chain aliphatic primary alcohol with the V_max, K_m, and k_cat of 0.24 nmol/min, 0.27 mM, and 3628.8 min^-1, respectively against methanol. Addition of alginic acid (0.35%) showed a protective effect on enhancing thermal stability of the enzyme, resulting in 72% increase in its half-life at 40 °C under the operational conditions. This enzyme represents a promising candidate for conversion of bioethanol to acetaldehyde as secondary chemical in biorefinery.

CMO1 encodes a putative choline monooxygenase and is required for the utilization of choline as the sole nitrogen source in the yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis (syn. Pichia stipitis)

Sixteen yeasts with sequenced genomes belonging to the ascomycete subphyla Saccharomycotina and Taphrinomycotina were assayed for their ability to utilize a variety of primary, secondary, tertiary and quartenary aliphatic amines as nitrogen sources. The results support a previously proposed pathway of quaternary amine catabolism whereby glycine betaine is first converted into choline, which is then cleaved to release trimethylamine, followed by stepwise demethylation of trimethylamine to release free ammonia. There were only a few instances of utilization of N-methylated glycine species (sarcosine and N,N-dimethylglycine), which suggests that this pathway is not intact in any of the species tested. The ability to utilize choline as a sole nitrogen source correlated strongly with the presence of a putative Rieske non-haem iron protein homologous to bacterial ring-hydroxylating oxygenases and plant choline monooxygenases. Deletion of the gene encoding the Rieske non-haem iron protein in the yeast Scheffersomyces stipitis abolished its ability to utilize choline as the sole nitrogen source, but did not affect its ability to use methylamine, dimethylamine, trimethylamine, ethylamine, diethylamine, ethanolamine or glycine as nitrogen sources. The gene was named CMO1 for putative choline monooxygenase 1. A bioinformatic survey of eukaryotic genomes showed that CMO1 homologues are found throughout the eukaryotic domain.

Purification and properties of a novel broad substrate specific alcohol oxidase from Aspergillus terreus MTCC 6324

An alcohol oxidase was isolated from the microsome of n-hexadecane grown Aspergillus terreus and purified by ion exchange chromatography. The oxidase was found to act on short chain-, long chain-, secondary-, and aromatic-alcohol substrates with highest affinity for n-heptanol (K(M)=0.498 mM, K(cat)=2.7x10(2) s(-1)). The native protein molecular mass was 269+/-5 kDa and the subunit molecular masses were 85-, 63-, 43-, 27-, and 13-kDa. The isoelectric point of the proteins was within 8.3-8.5. High aggregating property of the protein was demonstrated by AFM, DLS and TEM analyses. Chemical analysis showed the presence of oleic acid and palmitic acid at a ratio of 2:1 in the purified protein. This lipoidic nature of the protein particles was correlated to the high aggregating property. In this flavoenzyme, flavin was non-covalently but avidly associated. Peptide mass fingerprinting studies showed the presence of two FAD binding domains in 63 kDa protein. Among these two FAD binding domain sequences only the YPVIDHEYDAVVVGAGGAGLR peptide shows 45-50% sequence homology with the reported N-terminal sequences of other known alcohol oxidases. Non-redundant database search of 63- and 43-kDa subunits peptide sequences showed no sequence similarity with the other alcohol oxidase protein reported till now.

Characteristics of Gloeophyllum trabeum alcohol oxidase, an extracellular source of H2O2 in brown rot decay of wood

A novel alcohol oxidase (AOX) has been purified from mycelial pellets of the wood-degrading basidiomycete Gloeophyllum trabeum and characterized as a homooctameric nonglycosylated protein with native and subunit molecular masses of 628 and 72.4 kDa, containing noncovalently bonded flavin adenine dinucleotide. The isolated AOX cDNA contained an open reading frame of 1,953 bp translating into a polypeptide of 651 amino acids displaying 51 to 53% identity with other published fungal AOX amino acid sequences. The enzyme catalyzed the oxidation of short-chain primary aliphatic alcohols with a preference for methanol (K(m) = 2.3 mM, k(cat) = 15.6 s(-1)). Using polyclonal antibodies and immunofluorescence staining, AOX was localized on liquid culture hyphae and extracellular slime in sections from degraded wood and on cotton fibers. Transmission electron microscopy immunogold labeling localized the enzyme in the hyphal periplasmic space and wall and on extracellular tripartite membranes and slime, while there was no labeling of hyphal peroxisomes. AOX was further shown to be associated with membranous or slime structures secreted by hyphae in wood fiber lumina and within the secondary cell walls of degraded wood fibers. The differences in AOX targeting compared to the known yeast peroxisomal localization were traced to a unique C-terminal sequence of the G. trabeum oxidase, which is apparently responsible for the protein's different translocation. The extracellular distribution and the enzyme's abundance and preference for methanol, potentially available from the demethylation of lignin, all point to a possible role for AOX as a major source of H(2)O(2), a component of Fenton's reagent implicated in the generally accepted mechanisms for brown rot through the production of highly destructive hydroxyl radicals.

Distribution, diversity and regulation of alcohol oxidase isozymes, and phylogenetic relationships of methylotrophic yeasts

In this study, we attempted to classify the methylotrophic yeasts based on diversities of alcohol oxidase (AOD), i.e. zymogram patterns and partial amino acid sequences. According to zymogram patterns for AOD, members of the methylotrophic yeasts separate into two major lineages, one group involving strains having a single AOD and the other group, including Pichia methanolica, Candida pignaliae and C. sonorensis, showing nine AOD isozymes. Based on partial amino acid sequences of AOD, the methylotrophic yeasts could be divided into five groups, and this classification agrees mostly with grouping based on 26S domain D1/D2 rDNA nucleotide sequences, except for some strains. Moreover, the strains having AOD isozymes constitute one group with P. trehalophila, P. glucozyma and Pichia sp. strain BZ159, although these strains are divided into two types, based on amino acid sequences of second AODs. On the other hand, these AOD isozymes consist of two subunits; the first subunits are induced not only by methanol but also by glycerol and pectin, although the second subunits are mainly induced by methanol. These data indicate that AOD isozymes and second AOD genes distribute widely in several methylotrophic yeasts in the natural environment, and second AOD genes may have evolved as methylotrophic genes that can adapt to the environmental conditions of higher methanol concentrations.

Regulation of methanol utilisation pathway genes in yeasts

Methylotrophic yeasts such as Candida boidinii, Hansenula polymorpha, Pichia methanolica and Pichia pastoris are an emerging group of eukaryotic hosts for recombinant protein production with an ever increasing number of applications during the last 30 years. Their applications are linked to the use of strong methanol-inducible promoters derived from genes of the methanol utilisation pathway. These promoters are tightly regulated, highly repressed in presence of non-limiting concentrations of glucose in the medium and strongly induced if methanol is used as carbon source. Several factors involved in this tight control and their regulatory effects have been described so far. This review summarises available data about the regulation of promoters from methanol utilisation pathway genes. Furthermore, the role of cis and trans acting factors (e.g. transcription factors, glucose processing enzymes) in the expression of methanol utilisation pathway genes is reviewed both in the context of the native cell environment as well as in heterologous hosts.

Regulation of two distinct alcohol oxidase promoters in the methylotrophic yeastPichia methanolica

In this study, two Pichia methanolica alcohol oxidase (AOD) promoters, P(MOD1) and P(MOD2), were evaluated in a promoter assay system utilizing the acid phosphatase (AP) gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ScPHO5) as a reporter. Heterologous gene expression driven by the P(MOD1) and P(MOD2) promoters was found to be strong and tightly regulated by carbon source at the transcriptional level. P(MOD1) was induced not only by methanol but also by glycerol. P(MOD2) was induced only by methanol, although it was not repressed on the addition of glycerol to a methanol medium, suggesting that P(MOD2) is regulated in a manner distinct from that of other AOD-gene promoters. On the other hand, methanol and oxygen level-influenced gene expression mediated by P(MOD1) and P(MOD2). P(MOD1) expression was optimal at low methanol concentrations, whereas P(MOD2) was predominantly expressed at high methanol and high oxygen concentrations. Based on these results, both P(MOD2) and P(MOD1) should be useful tools for controlling heterologous gene expression in P. methanolica. In particular, it should be possible to differentially control the production phases of two heterologous proteins, using P(MOD1) and P(MOD2) in the same host cell and in the same flask.