Molecular Cloning, Expression and Biochemical Characterization of a Family 5 Glycoside Hydrolase First Endo-Mannanase (RfGH5_7) from Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 v3

Fermenter scale production of recombinant beta-mannanase by E. coli BL21 cells under microaerobic environment

Aim of the study was to optimize and produce beta-mannanase at fermenter scale by using cheaper minimal media. Increased production of beta-mannanase from Microbacterium camelliasinensis CIAB417 was achieved by heterologous expression in E. coli BL21 (DE3). The scale-up production of beta-mannanase was optimized from shake flask to 5-L fermenter. The cost-effective minimal media (M9+e) without any vitamins was found to be most effective and optimized for culturing the cells. The same media displayed no significant fluctuation in the pH while culturing the cells for the production of beta-mannanase both at shake flask and fermenter level. Additionally, E. coli cells were able to produce similar amount of dry cell weight and recombinant beta-mannanase both in the presence of micro and macro-oxygen environment. The optimized media was demonstrated to show no significant drop in pH throughout the recombinant protein production process. In one litre medium, 2.0314 g dry weight of E. coli cells yielded 1.8 g of purified recombinant beta-mannanase. The purified enzyme was lyophilized and demonstrated to hydrolyse locust bean gum to release mannooligosaccharides.

Thermophilic β-mannanases from bacteria: production, resources, structural features and bioengineering strategies

β-mannanases are pivotal enzymes that cleave the mannan backbone to release short chain mannooligosaccharides, which have tremendous biotechnological applications including food/feed, prebiotics and biofuel production. Due to the high temperature conditions in many industrial applications, thermophilic mannanases seem to have great potential to overcome the thermal impediments. Thus, structural analysis of thermostable β-mannanases is extremely important, as it could open up new avenues for genetic engineering, and protein engineering of these enzymes with enhanced properties and catalytic efficiencies. Under this scope, the present review provides a state-of-the-art discussion on the thermophilic β-mannanases from bacterial origin, their production, engineering and structural characterization. It covers broad insights into various molecular biology techniques such as gene mutagenesis, heterologous gene expression, and protein engineering, that are employed to improve the catalytic efficiency and thermostability of bacterial mannanases for potential industrial applications. Further, the bottlenecks associated with mannanase production and process optimization are also discussed. Finally, future research related to bioengineering of mannanases with novel protein expression systems for commercial applications are also elaborated.

Biochemical analyses of a novel acidophilic GH5 β-mannanase from Trichoderma asperellum ND-1 and its application in mannooligosaccharides production from galactomannans

In this study, an acidophilic GH5 β-mannanase (TaMan5) from Trichoderma asperellum ND-1 was efficiently expressed in Pichia pastoris (a 2.0-fold increase, 67.5 ± 1.95 U/mL). TaMan5 displayed the highest specificity toward locust bean gum (K_m = 1.34 mg/mL, V_max = 749.14 μmol/min/mg) at pH 4.0 and 65°C. Furthermore, TaMan5 displayed remarkable tolerance to acidic environments, retaining over 80% of its original activity at pH 3.0-5.0. The activity of TaMan5 was remarkably decreased by Cu²⁺, Mn²⁺, and SDS, while Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ improved the enzyme activity. A thin-layer chromatography (TLC) analysis of the action model showed that TaMan5 could rapidly degrade mannan/MOS into mannobiose without mannose via hydrolysis action as well as transglycosylation. Site-directed mutagenesis results suggested that Glu²⁰⁵, Glu³¹³, and Asp³⁵⁷ of TaMan5 are crucial catalytic residues, with Asp¹⁵² playing an auxiliary function. Additionally, TaMan5 and commercial α-galactosidase displayed a remarkable synergistic effect on the degradation of galactomannans. This study provided a novel β-mannanase with ideal characteristics and can be considered a potential candidate for the production of bioactive polysaccharide mannobiose.

Highly efficient, processive and multifunctional recombinant endoglucanase RfGH5_4 from Ruminococcus flavefaciens FD-1 v3 for recycling lignocellulosic plant biomasses

Gene encoding endoglucanase, RfGH5_4 from R. flavefaciens FD-1 v3 was cloned, expressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) cells and purified. RfGH5_4 showed molecular size 41 kDa and maximum activity at pH 5.5 and 55 °C. It was stable between pH 5.0-8.0, retaining 85% activity and between 5 °C-45 °C, retaining 75% activity, after 60 min. RfGH5_4 displayed maximum activity (U/mg) against barley β-D-glucan (665) followed by carboxymethyl cellulose (450), xyloglucan (343), konjac glucomannan (285), phosphoric acid swollen cellulose (86), beechwood xylan (21.7) and carob galactomannan (16), thereby displaying the multi-functionality. Catalytic efficiency (mL.mg^-1 s^-1) of RfGH5_4 against carboxymethyl cellulose (146) and konjac glucomannan (529) was significantly high. TLC and MALDI-TOF-MS analyses of RfGH5_4 treated hydrolysates of cellulosic and hemicellulosic polysaccharides displayed oligosaccharides of degree of polymerization (DP) between DP2-DP11. TLC, HPLC and Processivity-Index analyses revealed RfGH5_4 to be a processive endoglucanase as initially, for 30 min it hydrolysed cellulose to cellotetraose followed by persistent release of cellotriose and cellobiose. RfGH5_4 yielded sufficiently high Total Reducing Sugar (TRS, mg/g) from saccharification of alkali pre-treated sorghum (72), finger millet (62), sugarcane bagasse (38) and cotton (27) in a 48 h saccharification reaction. Thus, RfGH5_4 can be considered as a potential endoglucanase for renewable energy applications.

A trimodular family 16 glycoside hydrolase from the cellulosome of Ruminococcus flavefaciens displays highly specific licheninase (EC 3.2.1.73) activity

Cellulosomes are highly complex cell-bound multi-enzymatic nanomachines used by anaerobes to break down plant carbohydrates. The genome sequence of Ruminococcus flavefaciens revealed a remarkably diverse cellulosome composed of more than 200 cellulosomal enzymes. Here we provide a detailed biochemical characterization of a highly elaborate R. flavefaciens cellulosomal enzyme containing an N-terminal dockerin module, which anchors the enzyme into the multi-enzyme complex through binding of cohesins located in non-catalytic cell-bound scaffoldins, and three tandemly repeated family 16 glycoside hydrolase (GH16) catalytic domains. The DNA sequence encoding the three homologous catalytic domains was cloned and hyper-expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cells. SDS-PAGE analysis of purified His₆ tag containing RfGH16_21 showed a single soluble protein of molecular size ~89 kDa, which was in agreement with the theoretical size, 89.3 kDa. The enzyme RfGH16_21 exhibited activity over a wide pH range (pH 5.0-8.0) and a broad temperature range (50-70 °C), displaying maximum activity at an optimum pH of 7.0 and optimum temperature of 55 °C. Substrate specificity analysis of RfGH16_21 revealed maximum activity against barley β-d-glucan (257 U mg^-1) followed by lichenan (247 U mg^-1), but did not show significant activity towards other tested polysaccharides, suggesting that it is specifically a β-1,3-1,4-endoglucanase. TLC analysis revealed that RfGH16_21 hydrolyses barley β-d-glucan to cellotriose, cellotetraose and a higher degree of polymerization of gluco-oligosaccharides indicating an endo-acting catalytic mechanism. This study revealed a fairly high, active and thermostable bacterial endo-glucanase which may find considerable biotechnological potentials.

Molecular and biochemical characterizations of a new cold-active and mildly alkaline β-Mannanase from Verrucomicrobiae DG1235

Mannanases catalyze the cleavage of β-1,4-mannosidic linkages in mannans and have various applications in different biotechnological industries. In this study, a new β-mannanase from Verrucomicrobiae DG1235 (ManDG1235) was biochemically characterized and its enzymatic properties were revealed. Amino acid alignment indicated that ManDG1235 belonged to glycoside hydrolase family 26 and shared a low amino acid sequence identity to reported β-mannanases (up to 50% for CjMan26C from Cellvibrio japonicus). ManDG1235 was expressed in Escherichia coli. Purified ManDG1235 (rManDG1235) exhibited the typical properties of cold-active enzymes, including high activity at low temperature (optimal at 20 °C) and thermal instability. The maximum activity of rManDG1235 was achieved at pH 8, suggesting that it is a mildly alkaline β-mannanase. rManDG1235 was able to hydrolyze a variety of mannan substrates and was active toward certain types of glucans. A structural model that was built by homology modeling suggested that ManDG1235 had four mannose-binding subsites which were symmetrically arranged in the active-site cleft. A long loop linking β2 and α2 as in CjMan26C creates a steric border in the glycone region of active-site cleft which probably leads to the exo-acting feature of ManDG1235, for specifically cleaving mannobiose from the non-reducing end of the substrate.

Production of manno-oligosaccharide from Gleditsia microphylla galactomannan using acetic acid and ferrous chloride

A novel and efficient method for manno-oligosaccharides (MOS) production has been proposed by utilizing Gleditsia microphylla galactomannan as the starting material. This co-operative hydrolysis using ferrous chloride (Fe²⁺) and acetic acid (HAc) effectively improved the MOS yield and meanwhile decreased the amount of monosaccharide and the 5-hydroxymethyl-furfural (HMF). The highest yields under the optimum conditions were 46.7% by HAc hydrolysis (5 M HAc at 130 °C for 120 min); 37.3% by Fe²⁺ hydrolysis (0.1 M Fe²⁺ at 150 °C for 120 min); and 51.4% by co-operative hydrolysis (2 M HAc, 0.05 M Fe²⁺ at 160 °C for 10 min). From the changes in the value of M/G (mannose/galactose) ratios, it was deduced that Fe²⁺ predominantly cleaves the main chain, and HAc assists in the breakage of the side chain, thus resulting in the high-efficient co-operative hydrolysis for the production of MOS.

Small-angle X-ray scattering based structure, modeling and molecular dynamics analyses of a family 5 glycoside hydrolase first endo-mannanase named as RfGH5_7 from Ruminococcus flavefaciens

Endo-β-1,4-mannanase named as RfGH5_7 from Ruminococcus flavefaciens cloned, expressed and purified earlier was structurally characterized in present study. The RaptorX modeled structure of RfGH5_7 showed a (β/α)₈ Triose-phosphate Isomerase (TIM) barrel fold. The Ramachandran plot assessment of RfGH5_7 showed that all amino acids fall in allowed region except one, Asn22 in the disallowed region. The superposition of RfGH5_7 modeled structure with its nearest homologues revealed that Glu154 acts as proton donor while Glu249 acts as nucleophile. Secondary structure of RfGH5_7 through Circular Dichroism (CD) analysis revealed 33.5% α-helices, 17% β-strands and 49.5% random coils. Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation showed Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD), 0.67 nm and radius of gyration (Rg) between 1.9 nm and 1.85 nm. The binding interaction of mannotetraose on the surface of RfGH5_7 structure displayed polar interactions with His219, Tyr221, Trp278, Ser279 and Gly282 residues. Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis displayed the intact and monodispersed nature of the enzyme RfGH5_7. The radius of gyration (Rg) by Guinier analysis for globular shape was found to be 2.29 ± 0.09 nm and for rod-shape it was 0.95 ± 0.02 nm. Kratky plot confirmed that RfGH5_7 structure is compact and folded in solution. The ab initio derived dummy model of RfGH5_7 displayed single domain structure of yellow humped fish like shape. The RfGH5_7 modeled structure was well fitted with ab initio derived model from SAXS data. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.