Enzymatic acylation of polar dipeptides: Influence of reaction media and molecular environment of functional groups

Yeast Lipid Produced through Glycerol Conversions and Its Use for Enzymatic Synthesis of Amino Acid-Based Biosurfactants

The aim of the present work was to obtain microbial lipids (single-cell oils and SCOs) from oleaginous yeast cultivated on biodiesel-derived glycerol and subsequently proceed to the enzymatic synthesis of high-value biosurfactant-type molecules in an aqueous medium, with SCOs implicated as acyl donors (ADs). Indeed, the initial screening of five non-conventional oleaginous yeasts revealed that the most important lipid producer was the microorganism Cryptococcus curvatus ATCC 20509. SCO production was optimised according to the nature of the nitrogen source and the initial concentration of glycerol (Glyc0) employed in the medium. Lipids up to 50% w/w in dry cell weight (DCW) (SCO_max = 6.1 g/L) occurred at Glyc0 ≈ 70 g/L (C/N ≈ 80 moles/moles). Thereafter, lipids were recovered and were subsequently used as ADs in the N-acylation reaction catalysed by aminoacylases produced from Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC 23877 under aqueous conditions, while Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) was used as a reference enzyme. Aminoacylases revealed excellent activity towards the synthesis of acyl-lysine only when free fatty acids (FAs) were used as the AD, and the rare regioselectivity in the α-amino group, which has a great impact on the preservation of the functional side chains of any amino acids or peptides. Aminoacylases presented higher α-oleoyl-lysine productivity and final titer (8.3 g/L) with hydrolysed SCO than with hydrolysed vegetable oil. The substrate specificity of both enzymes towards the three main FAs found in SCO was studied, and a new parameter was defined, viz., Specificity factor (Sf), which expresses the relative substrate specificity of an enzyme towards a FA present in a FA mixture. The Sf value of aminoacylases was the highest with palmitic acid in all cases tested, ranging from 2.0 to 3.0, while that of CALB was with linoleic acid (0.9-1.5). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a microbial oil has been successfully used as AD for biosurfactant synthesis. This bio-refinery approach illustrates the concept of a state-of-the-art combination of enzyme and microbial technology to produce high-value biosurfactants through environmentally friendly and economically sound processes.

Effect of the acyl-group length on the chemoselectivity of the lipase-catalyzed acylation of propranolol-a computational study

The selective N-acylation of 1,2-amino alcohols has been proposed to occur through the proton shuttle mechanism. However, the O-acetylation of propranolol catalyzed by Candida antarctica lipase B is an exception. We investigated the relation between the chemoselectivity of this reaction and the acyl group length. For this purpose, we compared the acyl groups: ethanoyl, butanoyl, octanoyl, and hexadecanoyl. We studied the Michaelis complexes between serine-acylated Candida antarctica lipase B and propranolol, employing a computational approach that involved sampling Michaelis complex conformations through ensemble docking plus consensus scoring and molecular dynamics simulations. The conformations were then classified as near attack conformations for acylation of the amino or hydroxy group. The relative populations of these two classes of conformations were found to be consistent with the experimentally observed chemoselective O-acetylation. We predict that increasing the length of the hydrocarbon chain of the acyl group will cause O-acylation to be unfavorable with respect to N-acylation. The nucleophilic attack of propranolol to the acylated lipase was found to be more favorable through the classical mechanism when compared with the proton shuttle mechanism.

N-acylation of L-amino acids in aqueous media: Evaluation of the catalytic performances of Streptomyces ambofaciens aminoacylases

N-acylated amino acids are widely used as surfactants and/or actives in cosmetics and household formulations. Their industrial production is based on the use of the Schotten-Baumann chemical and unselective reaction. Faced to the growing demand for greener production processes, selective enzymatic synthesis in more environment-friendly conditions starts to be considered as a potential alternative. This study concerns the use of the aminoacylases from Streptomyces ambofaciens to selectively catalyse aminoacid acylation reaction by fatty acids in aqueous medium. The results demonstrated that, when using undecylenoic acid as acyl donor, these aminoacylases properly catalyse the acylation of 14 of the 20 proteogenic l-amino acids tested on their α amino group with a great variability depending on the nature of the amino acid (polar or not, positively/negatively charged, aromatic or not…). More precisely, the following 9 amino acids were shown to be preferentially acylated by S. ambofaciens aminoacylases as follows: lysine > arginine > leucine > methionine > phenylalanine > valine > cysteine > isoleucine > threonine. Different fatty acids were used as acyl donors and, in most cases, the fatty acid length influenced the conversion yield. The kinetic study of α-lauroy-lysine synthesis showed a positive influence of lysine concentration with Vmax and Km of 3.7 mM/h and 76 mM, respectively. Besides, the lauric acid had an inhibitory effect on the reaction with Ki of 70 mM. The addition of cobalt to the reaction medium led to a more than six-fold increase of the reaction rate. These results, achieved with the aminoacylases from S. ambofaciens represent an improved enzyme-based N-acylated amino acids production in order to provide an alternative way to the Schotten-Baumann chemical reaction currently used in the industry.

An aminoacylase activity from Streptomyces ambofaciens catalyzes the acylation of lysine on α-position and peptides on N-terminal position

The presence of aminoacylase activities was investigated in a crude extract of Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC23877. First activities catalyzing the hydrolysis of N-α or ε-acetyl-L-lysine were identified. Furthermore, the acylation of lysine and different peptides was studied and compared with results obtained with lipase B of Candida antarctica (CALB). Different regioselectivities were demonstrated for the two classes of enzymes. CALB was able to catalyze acylation only on the ε-position whereas the crude extract from S. ambofaciens possessed the rare ability to catalyze the N-acylation on the α-position of the lysine or of the amino-acid in N-terminal position of peptides. Two genes, SAM23877_1485 and SAM23877_1734, were identified in the genome of Streptomyces ambofaciens ATCC23877 whose products show similarities with the previously identified aminoacylases from Streptomyces mobaraensis. The proteins encoded by these two genes were responsible for the major aminoacylase hydrolytic activities. Furthermore, we show that the hydrolysis of N-α-acetyl-L-lysine could be attributed to the product of SAM23877_1734 gene.

Enzymatic Transesterification of Kraft Lignin with Long Acyl Chains in Ionic Liquids

Valorization of lignin is essential for the economic viability of the biorefinery concept. For example, the enhancement of lignin hydrophobicity by chemical esterification is known to improve its miscibility in apolar polyolefin matrices, thereby helping the production of bio-based composites. To this end and due to its many reactive hydroxyl groups, lignin is a challenging macromolecular substrate for biocatalyzed esterification in non-conventional media. The present work describes for the first time the lipase-catalyzed transesterification of Kraft lignin in ionic liquids (ILs). Three lipases, three 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium based ILs and ethyl oleate as long chain acyl donor were selected. Best results were obtained with a hydrophilic/hydrophobic binary IL system (1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate/1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluoro- phosphate, 1/1 v/v) and the immobilized lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB) that afforded a promising transesterification yield (ca. 30%). Similar performances were achieved by using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate as a coating agent for CALB rather than as a co-solvent in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethane-sulfonate thus limiting the use of hydrophobic IL. Structural characterization of lignin oleate was performed by spectroscopic studies (FTIR and ¹H-NMR). The synthesized lignin oleate exhibited interesting thermal and textural properties, different from those of the original Kraft lignin.

Gemini surfactants from natural amino acids

In this review, we report the most important contributions in the structure, synthesis, physicochemical (surface adsorption, aggregation and phase behaviour) and biological properties (toxicity, antimicrobial activity and biodegradation) of Gemini natural amino acid-based surfactants, and some potential applications, with an emphasis on the use of these surfactants as non-viral delivery system agents. Gemini surfactants derived from basic (Arg, Lys), neutral (Ser, Ala, Sar), acid (Asp) and sulphur containing amino acids (Cys) as polar head groups, and Geminis with amino acids/peptides in the spacer chain are reviewed.