Comparative thermostability of glucose dehydrogenase from Haloferax mediterranei. Effects of salts and polyols

Adding sorbitol improves the thermostability of α-l-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus niger and increases the conversion of hesperidin

In this study, we found the addition of sorbitol could improve the thermostability of α-l-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus niger. When α-l-rhamnosidase with sorbitol was heat-treated at 60°C, 65°C, and 70°C, the half-life t_1/2 increased by 28-, 18-, and 9-fold, respectively. Inactivation thermodynamic analysis showed that both E_a and ΔG^≠ of α-l-rhamnosidase increased. Through the response surface methodology (RSM) analysis, the higher hesperidin conversion (63.26%) by α-l-rhamnosidase was attained with 0.7 M sorbitol at 60°C and pH 4.5 for 10 min. Furthermore, hesperidin could be completely hydrolyzed after 10 hr of reaction. Overall, the results indicated that the addition of sorbitol improved the thermostability of α-l-rhamnosidase and increased the enzymatic conversion of hesperidin to hesperetin-7-O-glucoside (HMG). It also provided a simple and efficient way to increase enzymatic conversion of other valuable flavonoid monomers due to the broad substrate specificities of α-l-rhamnosidase from A. niger. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Hesperetin-7-O-glucoside (HMG), a derhamnosylation product of hesperidin, is considered as a synthetic precursor for novel and efficient sweeteners and is important in food, functional food, and nutraceutical industries. Compared to chemical hydrolysis methods, the enzymatic conversion of hesperidin is milder and has the advantages of high specificity. Adding sorbitol can improve the thermostability of α-l-rhamnosidase and increase the enzyme efficacy against hesperidin. This study gave more evidence that adding sorbitol could improve the thermostability of enzymes and provide a better choice for improving biotransformation potency of enzymes.

What do we learn from enzyme behaviors in organic solvents? - Structural functionalization of ionic liquids for enzyme activation and stabilization

Enzyme activity in nonaqueous media (e.g. conventional organic solvents) is typically lower than in water by several orders of magnitude. There is a rising interest of developing new nonaqueous solvent systems that are more "water-like" and more biocompatible. Therefore, we need to learn from the current state of nonaqueous biocatalysis to overcome its bottleneck and provide guidance for new solvent design. This review firstly focuses on the discussion of how organic solvent properties (such as polarity and hydrophobicity) influence the enzyme activity and stability, and how these properties impact the enzyme's conformation and dynamics. While hydrophobic organic solvents usually lead to the maintenance of enzyme activity, solvents carrying functional groups like hydroxys and ethers (including crown ethers and cyclodextrins) can lead to enzyme activation. Ionic liquids (ILs) are designable solvents that can conveniently incorporate these functional groups. Therefore, we systematically survey these ether- and/or hydroxy-functionalized ILs, and find most of them are highly compatible with enzymes leading to high activity and stability. In particular, ILs carrying both ether and tert-alcohol groups are among the most enzyme-activating solvents. Future direction is to learn from enzyme behaviors in both water and nonaqueous media to design biocompatible "water-like" solvents.

"Water-like" Dual-Functionalized Ionic Liquids for Enzyme Activation

By mimicking the water structure to improve the enzyme activity, we designed imidazolium (Im)-based ionic liquids (ILs) functionalized with both ether and tert-alcohol groups (e.g., [CH3(OCH2CH2) n -Im-t-BuOH][Tf2N]). This unique combination of the "water-like" structure enabled very high transesterification (synthetic) activities for immobilized lipase B from Candida antarctica, which are up to 2-4 folds higher than nonfunctionalized "classical" ionic liquids (such as [BMIM][Tf2N]) and up to 40-100% higher than diisopropyl ether and tert-butanol. Fluorescence emission spectra confirmed the general protein structural preservation in these tailored ionic solvents. In addition, functionalized ILs showed high thermal stabilities, which are comparable with diisopropyl ether but much higher than tert-butanol.

Changing relations between proteins and osmolytes: a choice of nature

The stabilization and destabilization of the protein in the presence of any additive is mainly attributed to its preferential exclusion from protein surface and its preferential binding to the protein surface, respectively.

Enhancing the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus and the enzymatic conversion of rutin to isoquercitrin by adding sorbitol

Background

Thermally stable α-L-rhamnosidase with cleaving terminal α-L-rhamnose activity has great potential in industrial application. Therefore, it is necessary to find a proper method to improve the thermal stability of α-L-rhamnosidase.

Results

In this study, addition of sorbitol has been found to increase the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus at temperatures ranging from 65 °C to 80 °C. Half-life and activation free energy with addition of 2.0 M sorbitol at 70 °C were increased by 17.2-fold, 8.2 kJ/mol, respectively. The analyses of the results of fluorescence spectroscopy and CD have indicated that sorbitol helped to protect the tertiary and secondary structure of α-L-rhamnosidase. Moreover, the isoquercitrin yield increased from 60.01 to 96.43% with the addition of 1.5 M of sorbitol at 70 °C.

Conclusion

Our findings provide an effective approach for enhancing the thermostability of α-L-rhamnosidase from Aspergillus terreus, which makes it a good candidate for industrial processes of isoquercitrin preparation.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12896-017-0342-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Phytase production by solid-state fermentation of groundnut oil cake by Aspergillus niger: A bioprocess optimization study for animal feedstock applications

This investigation deals with the use of agro-industrial waste, namely groundnut oil cake (GOC), for phytase production by the fungi Aspergillus niger NCIM 563. Plackett-Burman design (PBD) was used to evaluate the effect of 11 process variables and studies here showed that phytase production was significantly influenced by glucose, dextrin, distilled water, and MgSO4 · 7H2O. The use of response surface methodology (RSM) by Box-Behnken design (BBD) of experiments further enhanced the production by a remarkable 36.67-fold from the original finding of 15 IU/gds (grams of dry substrate) to 550 IU/gds. This is the highest solid-state fermentation (SSF) phytase production reported when compared to other microorganisms and in fact betters the best known by a factor of 2. Experiments carried out using dried fermented koji for phosphorus and mineral release and also thermal stability have shown the phytase to be as efficient as the liquid enzyme extract. Also, the enzyme, while exhibiting optimal activity under acidic conditions, was found to have significant activity in a broad range of pH values (1.5-6.5). The studies suggest the suitability of the koji supplemented with phytase produced in an SSF process by the "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) microorganism A. niger as a cost-effective value-added livestock feed when compared to that obtained by submerged fermentation (SmF).

Stabilizing effects of cations on lipases depend on the immobilization protocol

The effect of an additive on enzyme stability depends on the immobilization strategy.

Disruption of biomolecule function by nanoparticles: how do gold nanoparticles affect Phase I biotransformation of persistent organic pollutants?

The potential influence of nanoparticles on cytochrome P-450 (CYP) isozyme mediated Phase I biotransformation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in vitro was investigated using citrate-capped gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and 2,2',3,5',6-pentachlorobiphenyl (PCB 95) as the probe nanoparticle and compound, respectively. AuNPs affected the biotransformation activity of rat CYP2B1 and changed the atropisomeric composition of PCB 95, depending on the incubation time and the AuNP concentration. Electrostatic repulsion between citrate-coated AuNPs and rat CYP2B1 may influence the active conformation of the isozyme and consequently affect its activity and stereoselectivity. In addition, the effects of AuNPs on rat CYP2B1 activity also appeared to be through interference with the CYP catalytic cycle's electron transfer chain. Incubations with AuNPs had a decline in buffer conductance and an absorbance band red shift of AuNPs, from electrostatic interactions of K(+) with negatively-charged AuNP aggregates. These ionic strength changes affected the formation rate of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate, which provides electrons for the oxidative reaction cycle, and the biotransformation activity and stereoselectivity of CYP. This study suggests that charged nanoparticles may be able to alter the functions of biomolecules directly, by electrostatic interaction, or indirectly, by changes to the surrounding ionic strength. These factors should be taken into account for further understanding and prediction of the environmental behavior and fate of POPs and nanoparticles.

North Western Spain hot springs are a source of lipolytic enzyme-producing thermophilic microorganisms

Several hot springs in Galicia (North Western Spain) have been investigated as potential sources of lipolytic enzyme-producing thermophilic microorganisms. After isolating 12 esterase producing strains, 9 of them were assured to be true lipase producers, and consequently grown in submerged cultures, obtaining high extracellular activities by two of them. Furthermore, a preliminary partial characterization of the crude lipase, obtained by ultrafiltration of the cell-free culture supernatant, was carried out at several pH and temperature values. It is outstanding that several enzymes turned out to be multiextremozymes, since they had their optimum temperature and pH at typical values from thermoalkalophiles. The thermal stability in aqueous solution of the crude enzymes was also assayed, and the influence of some potential enzyme stabilizing compounds was tested. Finally, the viability of the selected microorganisms has been demonstrated at bioreactor scale.

Characterization of a HAP-phytase from a thermophilic mould Sporotrichum thermophile

The phytase of Sporotrichum thermophile was purified to homogeneity using acetone precipitation followed by ion-exchange and gel-filtration column chromatography. The purified phytase is a homopentamer with a molecular mass of approximately 456kDa and pI of 4.9. It is a glycoprotein with about 14% carbohydrate, and optimally active at pH 5.0 and 60 degrees C with a T(1/2) of 16h at 60 degrees C and 1.5h at 80 degrees C. The activation energy of the enzyme reaction is 48.6KJmol(-1) with a temperature quotient of 1.66, and it displayed broad substrate specificity. Mg(2+) exhibited a slight stimulatory effect on the enzyme activity, while it was markedly inhibited by 2,3-butanedione suggesting a possible role of arginine in its catalysis. The chaotropic agents such as guanidinium hydrochloride, urea and potassium iodide strongly inhibited phytase activity. Inorganic phosphate inhibited enzyme activity beyond 3mM. The maximum hydrolysis rate (V(max)) and apparent Michaelis-Menten constant (K(m)) for sodium phytate were 83nmolmg(-1)s(-1) and 0.156mM, respectively. The catalytic turnover number (K(cat)) and catalytic efficiency (K(cat)/K(m)) of phytase were 37.8s(-1) and 2.4x10(5)M(-1)s(-1), respectively. Based on the N-terminal and MALDI-LC-MS/MS identified amino acid sequences of the peptides, the enzyme did not show a significant homology with the known phytases.

Quantitative fluorometric analysis of the protective effect of chitosan on thermal unfolding of catalytically active native and genetically-engineered chitosanases

We have taken advantage of the intrinsic fluorescence properties of chitosanases to rapidly and quantitatively evaluate the protective effect of chitosan against thermal denaturation of chitosanases. The studies were done using wild type chitosanases N174 produced by Streptomyces sp. N174 and SCO produced by Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). In addition, two mutants of N174 genetically engineered by single amino acid substitutions (A104L and K164R) and one "consensus" (N174-CONS) chitosanase designed by multiple amino acid substitutions of N174 were analyzed. Chitosan used had a weight average molecular weight (Mw) of 220 kDa and was 85% deacetylated. Results showed a pH and concentration-dependent protective effect of chitosan in all the cases. However, the extent of thermal protection varied depending on chitosanases, suggesting that key amino acid residues contributed to resistance to heat denaturation. The transition temperatures (T(m)) of N174 were 54 degrees C and 69.5 degrees C in the absence and presence (6 g/l) of chitosan, respectively. T(m) were increased by 11.6 degrees C (N174-CONS), 13.8 degrees C (CSN-A104L), 15.6 degrees C (N174-K164R) and 25.2 degrees C (SCO) in the presence of chitosan (6 g/l). The thermal protective effect was attributed to an enzyme-ligand thermostabilization mechanism since it was not mimicked by the presence of anionic (carboxymethyl cellulose, heparin) or cationic (polyethylene imine) polymers, polyhydroxylated (glycerol, sorbitol) compounds or inorganic salts. Furthermore, the data from fluorometry experiments were in agreement with those obtained by analysis of reaction time-courses performed at 61 degrees C in which case CSN-A104L was rapidly inactivated whereas N174, N174-CONS and N174-K164R remained active over a reaction time of 90 min. This study presents evidence that (1) the fluorometric determination of T(m) in the presence of chitosan is a reliable technique for a rapid assessment of the thermal behavior of chitosanases, (2) it is applicable to structure-function studies of mutant chitosanases and, (3) it can be useful to provide an insight into the mechanism by which mutations can influence chitosanase stability.

Viscosity B-coefficients and standard partial molar volumes of amino acids, and their roles in interpreting the protein (enzyme) stabilization

This review systematically surveys the viscosity B-coefficients and standard partial molar volumes of amino acids at various temperatures as these data are quite important for interpreting the hydration and other properties of peptides and proteins. The effect of organic solutes and various ions on the viscometric and volumetric properties of amino acids has also been discussed in terms of their kosmotropic ('structure-making') effects on the hydration of amino acids. The comparison of these effects on the amino acid hydration enables us to have a better understanding of the influence of organic solute and salt on the protein stabilization. In addition, the viscometric and volumetric behaviors of amino acid ions (cations and anions) are also summarized because these ions have recently been incorporated as part of novel ionic liquids, which have wide applications in biocatalysis and protein stabilization.

Outlines for the definition of halotolerance/halophily in yeasts: Candida versatilis (halophila) CBS4019 as the archetype?

Candida versatilis (halophila) CBS4019 was chosen to study the physiological reactions of long-term exposure to extremely high salt concentrations. In general, our results show a significant increase in enzyme expression during growth under stress conditions. Although glycerol and mannitol pathways are not under glucose repression, they were found to be metabolically regulated. Glycerol-3P-dehydrogenase used either of its cofactors NADPH or NADH, being in favor of NADPH during growth with high salt concentrations. This ability of interchanging cofactors, an increased fermentation rate, and the observed mannitol pathway activity are suggested to contribute to the yeasts' redox stability. Enzymes per se were not salt-tolerant in vitro. Consistently, intracellular sodium was low and intracellular potassium, a requirement for growth, was high. The concept of halophily and its applicability to yeasts is discussed.

Activation of halophilic nucleoside diphosphate kinase by a non-ionic osmolyte, trimethylamine N-oxide

The folding and activity of halophilic enzymes are believed to require the presence of salts at high concentrations. When the inactivated nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDK) from extremely halophilic archaea was incubated with low salt media, no activity was regained over the course of 8 days. When it was incubated with approximately 2 M NaCl or 3 M KCl, however, it gradually regained activity. To our surprise, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) also was able to induce activation at 4.0 M. The enzyme activity and secondary structure of refolded NDK in 4 M TMAO were comparable with those of the native NDK or the refolded NDK in 3.8 M NaCl. TMAO is not an electrolyte, meaning that the presence of concentrated salts is not an absolute requirement, and that charge shielding or ion binding is not a sole factor for the folding and activation of NDK. Although both NaCl and TMAO are effective in refolding NDK, the mechanism of their actions appears to be different: the effect of protein concentration and pH on refolding is qualitatively different between these two, and at pH 8.0 NDK could be refolded in the presence of 4 M TMAO only when low concentrations of NaCl are included.

Retention and regeneration of native NAD(H) in noncharged ultrafiltration membrane reactors: application to L-lactate and gluconate production

NAD(H) was retained in a noncharged ultrafiltration membrane reactor for the simultaneous and continuous production of L-lactate and gluconate with coenzyme regeneration. Polyethyleneimine (PEI), a 50-kDa cationic polymer, achieved coenzyme retentions above 0.8 for PEI/NAD(H) molar ratios higher than 5. The ionic strength of the inlet medium caused a decrease of NAD(H) retention that can be counterbalanced by an initial addition of 1% bovine serum albumin (BSA). Continuous reactor performance in the presence of PEI and BSA showed that NAD(H), glucose dehydrogenase, and lactate dehydrogenase were retained by 10-kDa ultrafiltration membranes; L-lactate and gluconate were produced at conversions higher than 95%. PEI enhanced the thermal stability of the enzymes used and increased the catalytic efficiency of glucose dehydrogenase, while no effect was found on the kinetic parameters of lactate dehydrogenase. A model that implements the kinetic equations of the two enzymes describes the reactor behavior satisfactorily. In brief, the use of PEI to retain NAD(H) is a new interesting approach to be widely applied in continuous synthesis with the large number of known dehydrogenases.