Analysis of Thermal Adaptation in the HSL Enzyme Family

Hormone-sensitive lipase: sixty years later

Hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) was initially characterized as the hormonally regulated neutral lipase activity responsible for the breakdown of triacylglycerols into fatty acids in adipose tissue. This review aims at providing up-to-date information on structural properties, regulation of expression, activity and function as well as therapeutic potential. The lipase is expressed as different isoforms produced from tissue-specific alternative promoters. All isoforms are composed of an N-terminal domain and a C-terminal catalytic domain within which a regulatory domain containing the phosphorylation sites is embedded. Some isoforms possess additional N-terminal regions. The catalytic domain shares similarities with bacteria, fungus and vascular plant proteins but not with other mammalian lipases. HSL singularity is provided by regulatory and N-terminal domains sharing no homology with other proteins. HSL has a broad substrate specificity compared to other neutral lipases. It hydrolyzes acylglycerols, cholesteryl and retinyl esters among other substrates. A novel role of HSL, independent of its enzymatic function, has recently been described in adipocytes. Clinical studies revealed dysregulations of HSL expression and activity in disorders, such as lipodystrophy, obesity, type 2 diabetes and cancer-associated cachexia. Development of specific inhibitors positions HSL as a pharmacological target for the treatment of metabolic complications.

Development of an automated multienzymatic biosensor for risk assessment of pesticide contamination in water and food

The goal of this research is to better address the problems related to the widespread presence of pesticides in the environment. Despite the unquestionable utility of the pesticides against various pests in the agricultural field, most pesticides and the corresponding pesticide residues are toxic to the environment and hazardous to human health. The recent literature on organophosphate compounds emphasises a clear correlation between their use and the occurrence of disorders in the nervous system, especially in children. The conventional systems for the detection and analysis of these compounds are expensive, time‐consuming and require highly specialised operators; moreover, no online automated screening systems are yet available, that would allow the identification and quantification of the presence of these chemicals in samples from industrial sectors such as the food industry. Esterase‐based biosensors represent a viable alternative to this problem. In this fellowship programme, we aim to develop a robust and sensitive methodology that enables the screening of toxic compounds using a streamlined process, using an automated robotic system to achieve a continuous monitoring for risk assessment of pesticides.

New member of the hormone-sensitive lipase family from the permafrost microbial community

Siberian permafrost is a unique environment inhabited with diverse groups of microorganisms. Among them, there are numerous producers of biotechnologically relevant enzymes including lipases and esterases. Recently, we have constructed a metagenomic library from a permafrost sample and identified in it several genes coding for potential lipolytic enzymes. In the current work, properties of the recombinant esterases obtained from this library are compared with the previously characterized lipase from Psychrobacter cryohalolentis and other representatives of the hormone-sensitive lipase family.

Structural features determining thermal adaptation of esterases

The adaptation of microorganisms to extreme living temperatures requires the evolution of enzymes with a high catalytic efficiency under these conditions. Such extremophilic enzymes represent valuable tools to study the relationship between protein stability, dynamics and function. Nevertheless, the multiple effects of temperature on the structure and function of enzymes are still poorly understood at the molecular level. Our analysis of four homologous esterases isolated from bacteria living at temperatures ranging from 10°C to 70°C suggested an adaptation route for the modulation of protein thermal properties through the optimization of local flexibility at the protein surface. While the biochemical properties of the recombinant esterases are conserved, their thermal properties have evolved to resemble those of the respective bacterial habitats. Molecular dynamics simulations at temperatures around the optimal temperatures for enzyme catalysis revealed temperature-dependent flexibility of four surface-exposed loops. While the flexibility of some loops increased with raising the temperature and decreased with lowering the temperature, as expected for those loops contributing to the protein stability, other loops showed an increment of flexibility upon lowering and raising the temperature. Preserved flexibility in these regions seems to be important for proper enzyme function. The structural differences of these four loops, distant from the active site, are substantially larger than for the overall protein structure, indicating that amino acid exchanges within these loops occurred more frequently thereby allowing the bacteria to tune atomic interactions for different temperature requirements without interfering with the overall enzyme function.

Fluorescence spectroscopy approaches for the development of a real-time organophosphate detection system using an enzymatic sensor

Organophosphates are organic substances that contain a phosphoryl or a thiophosphoryl bond. They are mainly used around the world as pesticides, but can also be used as chemical warfare agents. Their detection is normally entrusted to techniques like GC- and LC-MS that, although sensitive, do not allow their identification on site and in real time. We have approached their identification by exploiting the high-affinity binding of these compounds with the esterase 2 from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius. Using an in silico analysis to evaluate the binding affinities of the enzyme with organophosphate inhibitors, like paraoxon, and other organophosphate compounds, like parathion, chlorpyriphos, and other organophosphate thio-derivatives, we have designed fluorescence spectroscopy experiments to study the quenching of the tryptophan residues after esterase 2 binding with the organophosphate pesticides. The changes in the fluorescence signals permitted an immediate and quantitative identification of these compounds from nano- to picomolar concentrations. A fluorescence based polarity-sensitive probe (ANS) was also employed as a means to understand the extent of the interactions involved, as well as to explore other ways to detect organophosphate pesticides. Finally, we designed a framework for the development of a biosensor that exploits fluorescence technology in combination with a sensitive and very stable bio-receptor.

Characterization of a cold-active lipase from Psychrobacter cryohalolentis K5(T) and its deletion mutants

A gene coding for cold-active lipase from the psychrotrophic Gram-negative bacterium Psychrobacter cryohalolentis K5(T) isolated from a Siberian cryopeg has been cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. The recombinant protein Lip1Pc with a 6× histidine tag at its C-terminus was purified by nickel affinity chromatography. With p-nitrophenyl dodecanoate (C12) as a substrate, the purified recombinant protein displayed maximum lipolytic activity at 25°C and pH 8.0. Increasing the temperature above 40°C and addition of various metal ions and organic solvents inhibited the enzymatic activity of Lip1Pc. Most nonionic detergents, such as Triton X-100 and Tween 20, slightly increased the lipase activity, while SDS completely inhibited it. To investigate the functional significance of the Lip1Pc N-terminal domain, we constructed five deletion mutants of this protein. The ND1 and ND2 mutants displayed specific activity reduced by 30-35%, while other truncated proteins were completely inactive. Both mutants demonstrated increased activity towards p-nitrophenyl decanoate (C10) and impaired utilization of C16 substrate. Although optimum reaction temperature of ND2 lowered to 20°C, it displayed enhanced stability by 44% after incubation at 40°C. The results prove that the N-terminal domain of Lip1Pc has a fundamental impact on the activity and stability of the protein.

A novel thermoalkalostable esterase from Acidicaldus sp. strain USBA-GBX-499 with enantioselectivity isolated from an acidic hot springs of Colombian Andes

Several thermo- and mesoacidophilic bacterial strains that revealed high lipolytic activity were isolated from water samples derived from acidic hot springs in Los Nevados National Natural Park (Colombia). A novel lipolytic enzyme named 499EST was obtained from the thermoacidophilic alpha-Proteobacterium Acidicaldus USBA-GBX-499. The gene estA encoded a 313-amino-acid protein named 499EST. The deduced amino acid sequence showed the highest identity (58 %) with a putative α/β hydrolase from Acidiphilium sp. (ZP_08632277.1). Sequence alignments and phylogenetic analysis indicated that 499EST is a new member of the bacterial esterase/lipase family IV. The esterase reveals its optimum catalytic activity at 55 °C and pH 9.0. Kinetic studies showed that 499EST preferentially hydrolyzed middle-length acyl chains (C6-C8), especially p-nitrophenyl (p-NP) caproate (C6). Its thermostability and activity were strongly enhanced by adding 6 mM FeCl3. High stability in the presence of water-miscible solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide and glycerol was observed. This enzyme also exhibits stability under harsh environmental conditions and enantioselectivity towards naproxen and ibuprofen esters, yielding the medically relevant (S)-enantiomers. In conclusion, according to our knowledge, 499EST is the first thermoalkalostable esterase derived from a Gram-negative thermoacidophilic bacterium.

Engineering lipase A from mesophilic Bacillus subtilis for activity at low temperatures

Loops or unordered regions of a protein are structurally dynamic and are strongly implicated in activity, stability and proteolytic susceptibility of proteins. Diminished activity of proteins at lower temperatures is considered to be due to compromised dynamics of the protein at lower temperatures. To evolve an active mesophilic lipase (Bacillus subtilis) at low temperatures, we subjected all the loop residues (n = 88) to site saturation mutagenesis (SSM). Based on a three-level screening protocol, we identified 14 substitutions, among 16,000 mutant population, which contributed to a substantial increase in activity at 5 °C. Based on the preliminary activity of recombinants at several temperatures, 5 substitutions among the 14 were found to be beneficial. A recombinant of these five mutations, named as 5CR, exhibited 7-fold higher catalytic efficiency than wild-type (WT) lipase at 10 °C. All the mutants, individually and in a recombinant (5CR), were characterized by substrate-binding parameters, melting temperatures and secondary structure. 5CR was similar to WT in substrate preferences and showed a significant improvement in activity at both lower and higher temperatures compared with the WT. To establish the contribution of mutations on the dynamics of the protein, we performed 100-ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulations on the WT and mutant lipase at 10 and 37 °C. The root mean square fluctuations (RMSFs) indeed showed that the mutations enhance the protein dynamics locally in the loop region having a catalytic residue, which may help in improved activities at lower temperatures.

A thermostable and organic-solvent tolerant esterase from Pseudomonas putida ECU1011: catalytic properties and performance in kinetic resolution of α-hydroxy acids

A novel esterase, rPPE01, from Pseudomonas putida ECU1011 was heterologously expressed in Escherichia coli and identified for enzymatic resolution of hydroxy acids via O-deacetylation. α-Acetoxy carboxylates were converted with approximately 50% yield and excellent enantioselectivity (E>200) at a substrate concentration of 100 mM. The half-lives of rPPE01 were 14 days at 50°C and 30 days at 30°C, indicating the enzyme has relatively high thermostability. Another remarkable advantage of rPPE01 is that both the activity and thermostability were enhanced significantly in the presence of hydrophobic alkanes and ethers. rPPE01 retained 159% of its initial activity after incubation with 50% (v/v) n-heptane at 30°C for 60 days. The attractive organic-solvent tolerance, good thermostability and high enantioselectivity towards α-acetoxy carboxylates endow rPPE01 with the potential of practical application for the production of enantiopure hydroxy acids.

Psychrophilic enzymes: from folding to function and biotechnology

Psychrophiles thriving permanently at near-zero temperatures synthesize cold-active enzymes to sustain their cell cycle. Genome sequences, proteomic, and transcriptomic studies suggest various adaptive features to maintain adequate translation and proper protein folding under cold conditions. Most psychrophilic enzymes optimize a high activity at low temperature at the expense of substrate affinity, therefore reducing the free energy barrier of the transition state. Furthermore, a weak temperature dependence of activity ensures moderate reduction of the catalytic activity in the cold. In these naturally evolved enzymes, the optimization to low temperature activity is reached via destabilization of the structures bearing the active site or by destabilization of the whole molecule. This involves a reduction in the number and strength of all types of weak interactions or the disappearance of stability factors, resulting in improved dynamics of active site residues in the cold. These enzymes are already used in many biotechnological applications requiring high activity at mild temperatures or fast heat-inactivation rate. Several open questions in the field are also highlighted.

In silico classification of proteins from acidic and neutral cytoplasms

Protein acidostability is a common problem in biopharmaceutical and other industries. However, it remains a great challenge to engineer proteins for enhanced acidostability because our knowledge of protein acidostabilization is still very limited. In this paper, we present a comparative study of proteins from bacteria with acidic (AP) and neutral cytoplasms (NP) using an integrated statistical and machine learning approach. We construct a set of 393 non-redundant AP-NP ortholog pairs and calculate a total of 889 sequence based features for these proteins. The pairwise alignments of these ortholog pairs are used to build a residue substitution propensity matrix between APs and NPs. We use Gini importance provided by the Random Forest algorithm to rank the relative importance of these features. A scoring function using the 10 most significant features is developed and optimized using a hill climbing algorithm. The accuracy of the score function is 86.01% in predicting AP-NP ortholog pairs and is 76.65% in predicting non-ortholog AP-NP pairs, suggesting that there are significant differences between APs and NPs which can be used to predict relative acidostability of proteins. The overall trends uncovered in the study can be used as general guidelines for designing acidostable proteins. To best of our knowledge, this work represents the first systematic comparative study of the acidostable proteins and their non-acidostable orthologs.

Optimization to low temperature activity in psychrophilic enzymes

Psychrophiles, i.e., organisms thriving permanently at near-zero temperatures, synthesize cold-active enzymes to sustain their cell cycle. These enzymes are already used in many biotechnological applications requiring high activity at mild temperatures or fast heat-inactivation rate. Most psychrophilic enzymes optimize a high activity at low temperature at the expense of substrate affinity, therefore reducing the free energy barrier of the transition state. Furthermore, a weak temperature dependence of activity ensures moderate reduction of the catalytic activity in the cold. In these naturally evolved enzymes, the optimization to low temperature activity is reached via destabilization of the structures bearing the active site or by destabilization of the whole molecule. This involves a reduction in the number and strength of all types of weak interactions or the disappearance of stability factors, resulting in improved dynamics of active site residues in the cold. Considering the subtle structural adjustments required for low temperature activity, directed evolution appears to be the most suitable methodology to engineer cold activity in biological catalysts.

The microbial diversity of Polar environments is a fertile ground for bioprospecting

The term bioprospecting has been adopted for systematic searches in nature for new bioactive compounds, genes, proteins, microorganisms and other products with potential for commercial use. Much effort has been focused on microorganisms able to thrive under harsh conditions, including the Polar environments. Both the lipid and protein cellular building blocks of Polar microorganisms are shaped by their adaptation to the permanently low temperatures. In addition, strongly differing environments, such as permafrost, glaciers and sea ice, have contributed to additional functional diversity. Emerging massive-parallel sequencing technologies have revealed the existence of a huge, hitherto unseen diversity of low-abundance phylotypes--the rare biosphere--even in the Polar environments. This realization has further strengthened the need to employ cultivation-independent approaches, including metagenomics and single-cell genomic sequencing, to get comprehensive access to the genetic diversity of microbial communities for bioprospecting purposes. In this review, we present an updated snapshot of recent findings on the molecular basis for adaptation to the cold and the phylogenetic diversities of different Polar environments. Novel approaches in bioprospecting are presented and we conclude by showing recent bioprospecting outcomes in terms of new molecules patented or applied by some biotech companies.

Lipases or esterases: does it really matter? Toward a new bio-physico-chemical classification

Carboxylester hydrolases, commonly named esterases, consist of a large spectrum of enzymes defined by their ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of carboxylic ester bonds and are widely distributed among animals, plants, and microorganisms. Lipases are lipolytic enzymes which constitute a special class of carboxylic esterases capable of releasing long-chain fatty acids from natural water-insoluble carboxylic esters. However, up to now, several unsuccessful attempts aimed at differentiating "lipases" from "esterases" by using various criteria. These criteria were based on the first substrate used chronologically, primary sequence comparisons, some kinetic parameters, or some structural features.Lipids are biological compounds which, by definition, are insoluble in water. Taking into account this basic physico-chemical criterion, we primarily distinguish lipolytic esterases (L, acting on lipids) from nonlipolytic esterases (NL, not acting on lipids). In view of the biochemical data accumulated up to now, we proposed a new classification of esterases based on various criteria of physico-chemical, chemical, anatomical, or cellular nature. We believe that the present attempt matters scientifically for several reasons: (1) to help newcomers in the field, performing a few key experiments to figure out if a newly isolated esterase is lipolytic or not; (2) to clarify a debate between scientists in the field; and (3) to formulate questions which are relevant to the still unsolved problem of the structure-function relationships of esterases.

PROTS: a fragment based protein thermo-stability potential

Designing proteins with enhanced thermo-stability has been a main focus of protein engineering because of its theoretical and practical significance. Despite extensive studies in the past years, a general strategy for stabilizing proteins still remains elusive. Thus effective and robust computational algorithms for designing thermo-stable proteins are in critical demand. Here we report PROTS, a sequential and structural four-residue fragment based protein thermo-stability potential. PROTS is derived from a nonredundant representative collection of thousands of thermophilic and mesophilic protein structures and a large set of point mutations with experimentally determined changes of melting temperatures. To the best of our knowledge, PROTS is the first protein stability predictor based on integrated analysis and mining of these two types of data. Besides conventional cross validation and blind testing, we introduce hypothetical reverse mutations as a means of testing the robustness of protein thermo-stability predictors. In all tests, PROTS demonstrates the ability to reliably predict mutation induced thermo-stability changes as well as classify thermophilic and mesophilic proteins. In addition, this white-box predictor allows easy interpretation of the factors that influence mutation induced protein stability changes at the residue level.

Hyperthermophilic phosphotriesterases/lactonases for the environment and human health

In the last decades the idea to use enzymes for environmental bioremediation has been more and more proposed and, in the light of this, new solutions have been suggested and detailed studies on some classes of enzymes have been performed. In particular, our attention in the last few years has been focused on the enzymes belonging to the amidohydrolase superfamily. Several members of this superfamily are endowed with promiscuous activities. The term 'catalytic promiscuity' describes the capability of an enzyme to catalyse different chemical reactions, called secondary activities, at the active site responsible for the main activity. Recently, a new family of microbial lactonases with promiscuous phosphotriesterase activity, dubbed PTE-Like Lactonase (PLL), has been ascribed to the amidohydrolase superfamily. Among members of this family are enzymes found in the archaea Sulfolobus solfataricus and Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, which show high thermophilicity and thermal resistance. Enzymes showing phosphotriesterase activity are attractive from a biotechnological point of view because they are capable of hydrolysing the organophosphate phosphotriesters (OPs), a class of synthetic compounds employed worldwide both as insecticides and chemical warfare agents. Furthermore, from a basic point of view, studies of catalytic promiscuity offer clues to understand natural evolution of enzymes and to translate this into in vitro adaptation of enzymes to specific human needs. Thermostable enzymes able to hydrolyse OPs are considered good candidates for the set-up of efficient detoxification tools.

Protein stability and enzyme activity at extreme biological temperatures

Psychrophilic microorganisms thrive in permanently cold environments, even at subzero temperatures. To maintain metabolic rates compatible with sustained life, they have improved the dynamics of their protein structures, thereby enabling appropriate molecular motions required for biological activity at low temperatures. As a consequence of this structural flexibility, psychrophilic proteins are unstable and heat-labile. In the upper range of biological temperatures, thermophiles and hyperthermophiles grow at temperatures > 100 °C and synthesize ultra-stable proteins. However, thermophilic enzymes are nearly inactive at room temperature as a result of their compactness and rigidity. At the molecular level, both types of extremophilic proteins have adapted the same structural factors, but in opposite directions, to address either activity at low temperatures or stability in hot environments. A model based on folding funnels is proposed accounting for the stability-activity relationships in extremophilic proteins.

A novel scoring function for discriminating hyperthermophilic and mesophilic proteins with application to predicting relative thermostability of protein mutants

Background

The ability to design thermostable proteins is theoretically important and practically useful. Robust and accurate algorithms, however, remain elusive. One critical problem is the lack of reliable methods to estimate the relative thermostability of possible mutants.

Results

We report a novel scoring function for discriminating hyperthermophilic and mesophilic proteins with application to predicting the relative thermostability of protein mutants. The scoring function was developed based on an elaborate analysis of a set of features calculated or predicted from 540 pairs of hyperthermophilic and mesophilic protein ortholog sequences. It was constructed by a linear combination of ten important features identified by a feature ranking procedure based on the random forest classification algorithm. The weights of these features in the scoring function were fitted by a hill-climbing algorithm. This scoring function has shown an excellent ability to discriminate hyperthermophilic from mesophilic sequences. The prediction accuracies reached 98.9% and 97.3% in discriminating orthologous pairs in training and the holdout testing datasets, respectively. Moreover, the scoring function can distinguish non-homologous sequences with an accuracy of 88.4%. Additional blind tests using two datasets of experimentally investigated mutations demonstrated that the scoring function can be used to predict the relative thermostability of proteins and their mutants at very high accuracies (92.9% and 94.4%). We also developed an amino acid substitution preference matrix between mesophilic and hyperthermophilic proteins, which may be useful in designing more thermostable proteins.

Conclusions

We have presented a novel scoring function which can distinguish not only HP/MP ortholog pairs, but also non-homologous pairs at high accuracies. Most importantly, it can be used to accurately predict the relative stability of proteins and their mutants, as demonstrated in two blind tests. In addition, the residue substitution preference matrix assembled in this study may reflect the thermal adaptation induced substitution biases. A web server implementing the scoring function and the dataset used in this study are freely available at http://www.abl.ku.edu/thermorank/.

Carboxylic ester hydrolases from hyperthermophiles

Carboxylic ester hydrolyzing enzymes constitute a large group of enzymes that are able to catalyze the hydrolysis, synthesis or transesterification of an ester bond. They can be found in all three domains of life, including the group of hyperthermophilic bacteria and archaea. Esterases from the latter group often exhibit a high intrinsic stability, which makes them of interest them for various biotechnological applications. In this review, we aim to give an overview of all characterized carboxylic ester hydrolases from hyperthermophilic microorganisms and provide details on their substrate specificity, kinetics, optimal catalytic conditions, and stability. Approaches for the discovery of new carboxylic ester hydrolases are described. Special attention is given to the currently characterized hyperthermophilic enzymes with respect to their biochemical properties, 3D structure, and classification.

Role of the N-terminal region for the conformational stability of esterase 2 from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius

In order to clarify the role played by the N-terminal region for the conformational stability of the thermophilic esterase 2 (EST2) from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius, two mutant forms have been investigated: a variant obtained by deleting the first 35 residues at the N-terminus (EST2-36del), and a variant obtained by mutating Lys102 to Gln (K102Q) to perturb the N-terminus by destroying the salt bridge E43-K102. The temperature- and denaturant-induced unfolding of EST2 and the two mutant forms have been studied by means of circular dichroism (CD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fluorescence measurements. In line with its thermophilic origin, the denaturation temperature of EST2 is high: T(d)=91 degrees C and 86 degrees C if detected by recording the CD signal at 222 nm and 290 nm, respectively. This difference suggests that the thermal denaturation process, even though reversible, is more complex than a two-state Nright arrow over left arrowD transition. The non-two-state behaviour is more pronounced in the case of the two mutant forms. The complex DSC profiles of EST2 and both mutant forms have been analysed by means of a deconvolution procedure. The thermodynamic parameters characterizing the two transitions obtained in the case of EST2 are: T(d,1)=81 degrees C, Delta(d)H(1)=440 kJ mol(-1), Delta(d)C(p,1)=7 kJ K(-1)mol(-1), T(d,2)=86 degrees C, Delta(d)H(2)=710 kJ mol(-1), and Delta(d)C(p,2)=9 kJ K(-1)mol(-1). The first transition occurs at lower temperatures in the two mutant forms, whereas the second transition is always centred at 86 degrees C. The results indicate that EST2 possesses two structural domains whose coupling is tight in the wild-type protein, but markedly weakens in the two mutant forms as a consequence of the perturbations in the N-terminal region.

Analysis of the thermostability determinants of hyperthermophilic esterase EstE1 based on its predicted three-dimensional structure

The three-dimensional (3D) structure of the hyperthermophilic esterase EstE1 was constructed by homology modeling using Archaeoglobus fulgidus esterase as a reference, and the thermostability-structure relationship was analyzed. Our results verified the predicted 3D structure of EstE1 and identified the ion pair networks and hydrophobic interactions that are critical determinants for the thermostability of EstE1.

Role of the N terminus in enzyme activity, stability and specificity in thermophilic esterases belonging to the HSL family

A superposition between the structures of Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius esterase 2 (EST2) and Burkholderia cepacia lipase, the latter complexed with a phosphonate inhibitor, allowed us to hypothesize for the EST2 N terminus a role in restricting the access to the active site and therefore in modulating substrate specificity. In order to test this hypothesis we generated by site-directed mutagenesis some truncated versions of EST2 and its double mutant M211S/R215L (S/L) at the N terminus. In parallel, an analysis of the Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 genome allowed us to identify a gene coding for a putative esterase of the HSL family having a natural deletion of the corresponding region. The product of this gene and the above-mentioned EST2 mutants were expressed in Escherichia coli, purified and characterised. These studies support the notion that the N terminus affects substrate specificity other than several other enzyme parameters. Although the deletions afforded a tenfold and 550-fold decrease in catalytic efficiency towards the best substrate pNP-hexanoate at 50 degrees C for EST2 and S/L, respectively, the analysis of the specific activities with different triacylglycerols with respect to pNP-hexanoate showed that their ratios were higher for deleted versus non-deleted enzymes, on all tested substrates. In particular, the above ratios for glyceryl tridecanoate were 30-fold and 14-fold higher in S/L and EST2 deleted forms, respectively, compared with their full-length versions. This behaviour was confirmed by the analysis of the S.solfataricus esterase, which showed similar specific activities on pNP-hexanoate and triacylglycerols; in addition, higher activities on the latter substrates were observed in comparison with EST2, S/L and their deleted forms. Finally, a dramatic effect on thermophilicity and thermostability in the EST2 deleted forms was observed. This is the first report highlighting the importance of the "cap" domain in the HSL family, since the N terminus partly contributes to the building up of this structure.

The Crystal Structure of an EST2 Mutant Unveils Structural Insights on the H Group of the Carboxylesterase/Lipase Family

Esterase 2 (EST2) from the thermophilic eubacterium Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius is a thermostable serine hydrolase belonging to the H group of the esterase/lipase family. This enzyme hydrolyzes monoacylesters of different acyl-chain length and various compounds with industrial interest. EST2 displays an optimal temperature at 70 degrees C and maximal activity with pNP-esters having acyl-chain bearing from six to eight carbon atoms. EST2 mutants with different substrate specificity were also designed, generated by site-directed mutagenesis, and biochemically characterized. To better define at structural level the enzyme reaction mechanism, a crystallographic analysis of one of these mutants, namely M211S/R215L, was undertaken. Here we report its three-dimensional structure at 2.10A resolution. Structural analysis of the enzyme revealed an unexpected dimer formation as a consequence of a domain-swapping event involving its N-terminal region. This phenomenon was absent in the case of the enzyme bound to an irreversible inhibitor having optimal substrate structural features. A detailed comparison of the enzyme structures before and following binding to this molecule showed a movement of the N-terminal helices resulting from a trans-cis isomerization of the F37-P38 peptide bond. These findings suggest that this carboxylesterase presents two distinct structural arrangements reminiscent of the open and closed forms already reported for lipases. Potential biological implications associated with the observed quaternary reorganization are here discussed in light of the biochemical properties of other lipolytic members of the H group.

Salt-dependent studies of NADP-dependent isocitrate dehydrogenase from the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii

The salt-dependent stability of recombinant dimeric isocitrate dehydrogenase [ICDH; isocitrate: NADP oxidoreductase (decarboxylating), EC 1.1.1.42] from the halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii (Hv) was investigated in various conditions. Hv ICDH dissociation/deactivation was measured to probe the respective effect of anions and cations on stability. Surprisingly, enzyme stability was found to be mainly sensitive to cations and very little (or not) sensitive to anions. Divalent cations induced a strong shift of the active/inactive transition towards low salt concentration. A high resistance of Hv ICDH to chemical denaturation was also found. The data were analysed and are discussed in the framework of the solvation stability model for halophilic proteins.