Obtaining higher transesterification rates with subtilisin Carlsberg in nonaqueous media

Increasing importance of protein flexibility in designing biocatalytic processes

Enzymes require some flexibility for catalysis. Biotechnologists prefer stable enzymes but often this stabilization comes at the cost of reduced efficiency. Enzymes from thermophiles have low flexibility but poor catalytic rates. Enzymes from psychrophiles are less stable but show good catalytic rates at low temperature. In organic solvents enzymes perform poorly as the prior drying makes the enzyme molecules very rigid. Adding water or increasing reaction temperature improves flexibility and catalytic rates. In case of hydrolases, flexibility and enantioselectivity have interdependence. Understanding the complex role of protein flexibility in biocatalysis can help in designing biotechnological processes.

Cronobacter sakazakii: stress survival and virulence potential in an opportunistic foodborne pathogen

A characteristic feature of the opportunistic foodborne pathogen Cronobacter sakazakii is its ability to survive in extremely arid environments, such as powdered infant formula, making it a dangerous opportunistic pathogen of individuals of all age groups, especially infants and neonates. Herein, we provide a brief overview of the pathogen; clinical manifestations, environmental reservoirs and our current understanding of stress response mechanisms and virulence factors which allow it to cause disease.

High activity preparations of lipases and proteases for catalysis in low water containing organic solvents and ionic liquids

Simple precipitation of enzymes has shown impressive catalytic efficiencies in organic solvents. In asmuch as these can be recovered after the reaction, these can be viewed as immobilized preparations just like more extensively used cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs). This chapter describes three protocols which use these enzyme precipitated and rinsed with propanol/some other appropriate organic solvent. The first two protocols show their applications in ionic liquids for a transesterification reaction and a kinetic resolution. The third protocol presumably incorporates an "imprinting" effect so that the precipitates are now able to efficiently catalyze transesterification of tributyrin with tertiary alcohols.

Activation and stabilization of enzymes in ionic liquids

As environmentally benign "green" solvents, room temperature ionic liquids (ILs) have been used as solvents or (co)solvents in biocatalytic reactions and processes for a decade. The technological utility of enzymes can be enhanced greatly by their use in ionic liquids (ILs) rather than in conventional organic solvents or in their natural aqueous reaction media. In fact, the combination of green properties and unique tailor-made physicochemical properties make ILs excellent non-aqueous solvents for enzymatic catalysis with numerous advantages over other solvents, including high conversion rates, high selectivity, better enzyme stability, as well as better recoverability and recyclability. However, in many cases, particularly in hydrophilic ILs, enzymes show relative instability and/or lower activity compared with conventional solvents. To improve the enzyme activity as well as stability in ILs, various attempts have been made by modifying the form of the enzymes. Examples are enzyme immobilization onto support materials via adsorption or multipoint attachment, lyophilization in the presence of stabilizing agents, chemical modification with stabilizing agents, formation of cross-linked enzyme aggregates, pretreatment with polar organic solvents or enzymes combined with suitable surfactants to form microemulsions. The use of these enzyme preparations in ILs can dramatically increase the solvent tolerance, enhance activity as well as stability, and improve enantioselectivity. This perspective highlights a number of pronounced strategies being used successfully for activation and stabilization of enzymes in non-aqueous ILs media. This review is not intended to be comprehensive, but rather to present a general overview of the potential approaches to activate enzymes for diverse enzymatic processes and biotransformations in ILs.

Effect of trehalose on protein structure

Trehalose is a ubiquitous molecule that occurs in lower and higher life forms but not in mammals. Till about 40 years ago, trehalose was visualized as a storage molecule, aiding the release of glucose for carrying out cellular functions. This perception has now changed dramatically. The role of trehalose has expanded, and this molecule has now been implicated in a variety of situations. Trehalose is synthesized as a stress-responsive factor when cells are exposed to environmental stresses like heat, cold, oxidation, desiccation, and so forth. When unicellular organisms are exposed to stress, they adapt by synthesizing huge amounts of trehalose, which helps them in retaining cellular integrity. This is thought to occur by prevention of denaturation of proteins by trehalose, which would otherwise degrade under stress. This explanation may be rational, since recently, trehalose has been shown to slow down the rate of polyglutamine-mediated protein aggregation and the resultant pathogenesis by stabilizing an aggregation-prone model protein. In recent years, trehalose has also proved useful in the cryopreservation of sperm and stem cells and in the development of a highly reliable organ preservation solution. This review aims to highlight the changing perception of the role of trehalose over the last 10 years and to propose common mechanisms that may be involved in all the myriad ways in which trehalose stabilizes protein structures. These will take into account the structure of trehalose molecule and its interactions with its environment, and the explanations will focus on the role of trehalose in preventing protein denaturation.

Three-phase partitioning of alpha-galactosidase from fermented media of Aspergillus oryzae and comparison with conventional purification techniques

Simple, attractive and versatile technique, three-phase partitioning (TPP) was used to purify alpha-galactosidase from fermented media of Aspergillus oryzae. The various conditions required for attaining efficient purification of the alpha-galactosidase fractions were optimized. The addition of n-butanol, t-butanol, and isopropanol in the presence of ammonium sulfate pushes the protein out of the solution to form an interfacial precipitate layer between the lower aqueous and upper organic layers. The single step of three-phase partitioning, by saturating final concentration of ammonium sulfate (60%) with 1:1 t-butanol, gave activity recovery of 92% with 12-fold purification at second phase of TPP. The final purified enzyme after TPP showed considerable purification on SDS-PAGE with a molecular weight of 64 kDa. The enzyme after TPP showed improved activity in organic solvents. Results are compared with conventional established processes for the purification of alpha-galactosidase produced by Aspergillus oryzae and overall the proposed TPP technique resulted in 70% reduction of purification cost compared to conventional chromatographic protocols.

Obtaining high transesterification activity for subtilisin in ionic liquids

It is known that subtilisin shows poor transesterification activity in ionic liquids (ILs). The present work, taking subtilisin as the system, explores approaches for biocatalyst preparations, which are capable of yielding higher/adequate transesterification activity in these solvents. Of all the approaches tried, enzyme precipitated and rinsed with n-propanol (EPRP) gave the best results (about 10,000 times increase in initial rates in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([Bmim][PF(6)]) over what is obtained with pH tuned lyophilized powders). In case of water soluble ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([Bmim][BF(4)]), pH tuned lyophilized subtilisin did not show any transesterification activity. EPRP, however, gave an initial rate (for transesterification) of 2.78 mmol mg(-1) h(-1).

Enhancing the synthetic utility of aldolase antibody 38C2

Three-phase partitioning (TPP) treated aldolase antibody 38C2 was evaluated for aldol reaction between p-nitrobenzaldehyde and acetone to give 4-(4'-nitrophenyl)-4-hydroxy-2-butanone. While TPP-treated 38C2 transformed 65% of p-nitrobenzaldehyde, the untreated 38C2 gave only 24% transformation in 18 h at 25 degrees C. However, since TPP-treated 38C2 also gave an additional (unidentified) product, its synthetic utility was limited. Crosslinked aggregate of 38C2, however, gave the biocatalyst which gave a single product and could be reused at 40 degrees C five times without loss of activity.