Efficient refolding of recombinant lipase from Escherichia coli inclusion bodies by response surface methodology

Response Surface Methodology for Optimization Membrane Disruption Using Thermolysis in Lipase Lk2 and Lk3

Lk2 and Lk3 were thermostable recombinant lipase and highly expressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3). However, Lk2 and Lk3 accumulated as an inclusion body. To further characterize both recombinant lipases, the soluble enzyme must be obtained first. This study aimed to optimize the disruption of the cell membrane in order to obtain soluble and active lipases. The effects of temperature lysis, pH, and SDS concentration on lipolytic activity Lk2 and Lk3 were investigated using a three-factor Box-Behnken design response surface methods. The optimum condition for the temperature variables at 50°C, pH 8, and 0.34% SDS which gave a lipolytic activity of 0.9 U for Lk2. Meanwhile, Lk3 lipolytic activity of 0.9 U obtained at the temperature of 50°C, pH 8, and 0.1% SDS. This result showed efficient one-step membrane disruption methods using thermolysis with addition of a low concentration of detergent at pH 8. The methods used were effective and applicable in the production of active and soluble thermostable recombinant lipase.

Urea titration of a lipase from Pseudomonas sp. reveals four different conformational states, with a stable partially folded state explaining its high aggregation propensity

The conversion of soluble proteins into amyloid fibrils has importance in protein chemistry, biology, biotechnology and medicine. A novel lipase from Pseudomonas sp. was previously shown to have an extremely high aggregation propensity. It was therefore herein studied to elucidate the physicochemical and structural determinants of this extreme behaviour. Amyloid-like structures were found to form in samples up to 2.5-3.0 M using Thioflavin T fluorescence and Congo red binding assays. However, dynamic light scattering (DLS), static light scattering and turbidimetry revealed the existence of aggregates up to 4.0 M urea, without amyloid-like structure. Two monomeric conformational states were detected with intrinsic fluorescence, 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonate (ANS) binding and circular dichroism. These were further characterized in 7.5 M and 4.5 M urea using enzymatic activity measurements, tryptophan fluorescence quenching, DLS and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and were found to consist of a largely disordered and a partially folded state, respectively, with the latter appearing stable, cooperative, fairly compact, non-active, α-helical, with largely buried hydrophobic residues. The persistence of a stable structure up to high concentrations of urea, in the absence of sequence characteristics typical of a high intrinsic aggregation propensity, explains the high tendency of this enzyme to form amyloid-like structures.

Efficient refolding of recombinant reteplase expressed in Escherichia coli strains using response surface methodology

Reteplase is a deleted variant of human tissue plasminogen activator with a complex structure containing nine disulfide bonds. Reteplase is expressed as inclusion bodies in Escherichia coli and needs the additional step of refolding for activation. In this study an experimental design was performed to find the optimal refolding condition for reteplase. The influence of 14 chemical additives was assessed by one factor at a time method and then Taguchi design followed by response surface methodology was employed to find compounds with most significant effects on reteplase refolding and their optimum concentration. We found that 0.13 M histidine, 1.64 M methionine, 0.33 M cysteine, and 0.34 M arginine in addition to the GSH/GSSG is the optimal condition for refolding of reteplase. We also investigated the refolding yield for inclusion bodies obtained from different E. coli strains and found that BL21 (DE3) has the best recovery yield in comparison to Rosetta-gami and Shuffle T7.

Functional Heterologous Expression of Mature Lipase LipA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSA01 in Escherichia coli SHuffle and BL21 (DE3): Effect of the Expression Host on Thermal Stability and Solvent Tolerance of the Enzyme Produced

This study aimed to express heterologously the lipase LipA from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PSA01 obtained from palm fruit residues. In previous approaches, LipA was expressed in Escherichia coli fused with its signal peptide and without its disulfide bond, displaying low activity. We cloned the mature LipA with its truncated chaperone Lif in a dual plasmid and overexpressed the enzyme in two E. coli strains: the traditional BL21 (DE3) and the SHuffle® strain, engineered to produce stable cytoplasmic disulfide bonds. We evaluated the effect of the disulfide bond on LipA stability using molecular dynamics. We expressed LipA successfully under isopropyl β-d-1-thio-galactopyranoside (IPTG) and slow autoinducing conditions. The SHuffle LipA showed higher residual activity at 45 °C and a greater hyperactivation after incubation with ethanol than the enzyme produced by E. coli BL21 (DE3). Conversely, the latter was slightly more stable in methanol 50% and 60% (t½: 49.5 min and 9 min) than the SHuffle LipA (t½: 31.5 min and 7.4 min). The molecular dynamics simulations showed that removing the disulfide bond caused some regions of LipA to become less flexible and some others to become more flexible, significantly affecting the closing lid and partially exposing the active site at all times.

Structural investigation of APRs to improve the solubility of outer membrane protease (PgtE) from Salmonella enterica serotype typhi- A multi-constraint approach

Outer membrane proteins were playing a crucial role on the several functions controlled by cell membranes even though they are not naturally expressed at higher levels. In order to obtain biologically active protein, the denaturation of these inclusion bodies must be optimized using chaotropic agents. Hence, this study focuses on improving the yield of Outer Membrane Protease (PgtE) from Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi (S. Typhi) using chaotropes and additives. Denaturation methods were tried with various pH, detergents, and reducing agents were used to optimize the solubility of PgtE with biologically active form. Due to the aggregation, we failed to achieve the maximum yield of PgtE. Consequently, we predicted 9 Aggregation Prone Regions (APRs) in PgtE, which are mutated by known structural Gatekeepers. We calculated the Aggregation Index (AI) of PgtE with 10 mM of aspartic acid as an additive in optimized buffer. In addition, the mutations at specific positions within the protein structure can act as APRs suppressors without affecting protein stability with CABS flex dynamics. The multiple sequence analysis demonstrate that aspartic acid is appropriate denaturing additive for other Gram-negative pathogens of Omptin family.

mesT, a unique epoxide hydrolase, is essential for optimal growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the presence of styrene oxide

Aim: mesT of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a hypothetical/putative epoxide hydrolase, is predicted to convert toxic epoxides to the more water-soluble and less toxic diols. Detailed characterization of the protein was carried out. Results: mesT demonstrated esterase as well as epoxide hydrolase activity. It was membrane bound and was upregulated under hypoxic conditions. The enzyme was able to degrade styrene oxide. The presence of antisense against this gene resulted in the inhibition of in vitro bacterial growth/survival in the presence of styrene oxide. Conclusion & future perspective: We demonstrated that mesT possessed epoxide hydrolase activity and styrene oxide might be its physiological substrate. Inhibition of mesT reduced the growth of the bacteria in presence of styrene oxide and its expression under hypoxic condition suggested its role in intracellular survival of bacteria.

WITHDRAWN: Optimization of recombinant Pseudomonas putida proline dehydrogenase purification in aqueous two-phase systems using response surface methodology

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Refolding techniques for recovering biologically active recombinant proteins from inclusion bodies

Biologically active proteins are useful for studying the biological functions of genes and for the development of therapeutic drugs and biomaterials in a biotechnology industry. Overexpression of recombinant proteins in bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, often results in the formation of inclusion bodies, which are protein aggregates with non-native conformations. As inclusion bodies contain relatively pure and intact proteins, protein refolding is an important process to obtain active recombinant proteins from inclusion bodies. However, conventional refolding methods, such as dialysis and dilution, are time consuming and, often, recovered yields of active proteins are low, and a trial-and-error process is required to achieve success. Recently, several approaches have been reported to refold these aggregated proteins into an active form. The strategies largely aim at reducing protein aggregation during the refolding procedure. This review focuses on protein refolding techniques using chemical additives and laminar flow in microfluidic chips for the efficient recovery of active proteins from inclusion bodies.

Amyloid fibril formation by a normally folded protein in the absence of denaturants and agitation

The conversion of normally folded proteins into amyloid-like fibrils is an important process in protein chemistry, biology, pathology and biotechnology. This process generally requires harsh conditions, such as pH extremes, organic cosolvents, high temperatures, high pressures or shear forces. Such conditions promote aggregation because they partially unfold structured proteins or allow the sampling of locally unfolded native-like states, both of which possibly represent amyloidogenic states. Here we report the formation of amyloid-like fibrils by the lipase from Pseudomonas sp. under conditions that are close to physiological, that is, in the absence of denaturants and agitation. The resulting aggregates bind thioflavin T and Congo red, causing their characteristic spectral changes observed in the presence of amyloid fibrils. They possess a significant quantity of β-sheet structure, as detected with Fourier transform infrared and far-UV circular dichroism spectroscopies, and appear fibrillar using transmission electron microscopy. These results indicate that the lipase from Pseudomonas sp. can be a useful model system for the characterization of a key process, such as amyloid fibril formation under physiological conditions.

A monolithic lipase reactor for biodiesel production by transesterification of triacylglycerides into fatty acid methyl esters

An enzymatic reactor with lipase immobilized on a monolithic polymer support has been prepared and used to catalyze the transesterification of triacylglycerides into the fatty acid methyl esters commonly used for biodiesel. A design of experiments procedure was used to optimize the monolithic reactor with variables including control of the surface polarity of the monolith via variations in the length of the hydrocarbon chain in alkyl methacrylate monomer, time of grafting of 1-vinyl-4,4-dimethylazlactone used to activate the monolith, and time used for the immobilization of porcine lipase. Optimal conditions involved the use of a poly(stearyl methacrylate-co-ethylene dimethacrylate) monolith, grafted first with vinylazlactone, then treated with lipase for 2 h to carry out the immobilization of the enzyme. Best conditions for the transesterification of glyceryl tributyrate included a temperature of 37°C and a 10 min residence time of the substrate in the bioreactor. The reactor did not lose its activity even after pumping through it a solution of substrate equaling 1,000 reactor volumes. This enzymatic reactor was also used for the transesterification of triacylglycerides from soybean oil to fatty acid methyl esters thus demonstrating the ability of the reactor to produce biodiesel.