Lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Production in Escherichia coli and activation in vitro with a protein from the downstream gene

Medically Relevant Acinetobacter Species Require a Type II Secretion System and Specific Membrane-Associated Chaperones for the Export of Multiple Substrates and Full Virulence

Acinetobacter baumannii, A. nosocomialis, and A. pittii have recently emerged as opportunistic human pathogens capable of causing severe human disease; however, the molecular mechanisms employed by Acinetobacter to cause disease remain poorly understood. Many pathogenic members of the genus Acinetobacter contain genes predicted to encode proteins required for the biogenesis of a type II secretion system (T2SS), which have been shown to mediate virulence in many Gram-negative organisms. Here we demonstrate that Acinetobacter nosocomialis strain M2 produces a functional T2SS, which is required for full virulence in both the Galleria mellonella and murine pulmonary infection models. Importantly, this is the first bona fide secretion system shown to be required for virulence in Acinetobacter. Using bioinformatics, proteomics, and mutational analyses, we show that Acinetobacter employs its T2SS to export multiple substrates, including the lipases LipA and LipH as well as the protease CpaA. Furthermore, the Acinetobacter T2SS, which is found scattered amongst five distinct loci, does not contain a dedicated pseudopilin peptidase, but instead relies on the type IV prepilin peptidase, reinforcing the common ancestry of these two systems. Lastly, two of the three secreted proteins characterized in this study require specific chaperones for secretion. These chaperones contain an N-terminal transmembrane domain, are encoded adjacently to their cognate effector, and their disruption abolishes type II secretion of their cognate effector. Bioinformatic analysis identified putative chaperones located adjacent to multiple previously known type II effectors from several Gram-negative bacteria, which suggests that T2SS chaperones constitute a separate class of membrane-associated chaperones mediating type II secretion.

In vivo functional expression of a screened P. aeruginosa chaperone-dependent lipase in E. coli

Background

Microbial lipases particularly Pseudomonas lipases are widely used for biotechnological applications. It is a meaningful work to design experiments to obtain high-level active lipase. There is a limiting factor for functional overexpression of the Pseudomonas lipase that a chaperone is necessary for effective folding. As previously reported, several methods had been used to resolve the problem. In this work, the lipase (LipA) and its chaperone (LipB) from a screened strain named AB which belongs to Pseudomonas aeruginosa were overexpressed in E. coli with two dual expression plasmid systems to enhance the production of the active lipase LipA without in vitro refolding process.

Results

In this work, we screened a lipase-produced strain named AB through the screening procedure, which was identified as P. aeruginosa on the basis of 16S rDNA. Genomic DNA obtained from the strain was used to isolate the gene lipA (936 bp) and lipase specific foldase gene lipB (1023 bp). One single expression plasmid system E. coli BL21/pET28a-lipAB and two dual expression plasmid systems E. coli BL21/pETDuet-lipA-lipB and E. coli BL21/pACYCDuet-lipA-lipB were successfully constructed. The lipase activities of the three expression systems were compared to choose the optimal expression method. Under the same cultured condition, the activities of the lipases expressed by E. coli BL21/pET28a-lipAB and E. coli BL21/pETDuet-lipA-lipB were 1300 U/L and 3200 U/L, respectively, while the activity of the lipase expressed by E. coli BL21/pACYCDuet-lipA-lipB was up to 8500 U/L. The lipase LipA had an optimal temperature of 30°C and an optimal pH of 9 with a strong pH tolerance. The active LipA could catalyze the reaction between fatty alcohols and fatty acids to generate fatty acid alkyl esters, which meant that LipA was able to catalyze esterification reaction. The most suitable fatty acid and alcohol substrates for esterification were octylic acid and hexanol, respectively.

Conclusions

The effect of different plasmid system on the active LipA expression was significantly different. pACYCDuet-lipA-lipB was more suitable for the expression of active LipA than pET28a-lipAB and pETDuet-lipA-lipB. The LipA showed obvious esterification activity and thus had potential biocatalytic applications. The expression method reported here can give reference for the expression of those enzymes that require chaperones.

Enhancing functional production of a chaperone-dependent lipase in Escherichia coli using the dual expression cassette plasmid

BACKGROUND

The lipase subfamilies I.1 and I.2 show more than 33% homology in the amino acid sequences and most members share another common property that their genes are clustered with the secondary genes whose protein products are required for folding the lipase into an active conformation and secretion into the culture medium. In previous studies, the lipase (LipA) and its chaperone (LipB) from Ralstonia sp. M1 were overexpressed in E. coli and the lipase was successfully refolded in vitro. The purpose of this study was to enhance the production of the active lipase LipA from Ralstonia sp. M1 in the heterologous host E. coli without in vitro refolding process, using two-plasmid co-expression systems and dual expression cassette plasmid systems.

RESULTS

To produce more active lipase from Ralstonia sp. M1 in E. coli without in vitro refolding process but with the help of overexpression of the chaperone (LipB1 and LipB3 corresponding to 56-aa truncated and 26-aa truncated chaperone LipB), six different expression systems including 2 two-plasmid co-expression systems (E. coli BL21/pELipABa + pELipB1k and BL21/pELipABa + pELipB3k) and 4 dual expression cassette plasmid systems (BL21/pELipAB-LipB1a, BL21/pELipAB-LipB3a, BL21/pELipA-LipB1a, and BL21/pELipA-LipB3a) were constructed. The two-plasmid co-expression systems (E. coli BL21/pELipABa + pELipB1k and BL21/pELipABa + pELipB3k) produced the active lipase at a level of 4 times as high as the single expression cassette plasmid system E. coli BL21/pELipABa did. For the first time, the dual expression cassette plasmid systems BL21/pELipAB-LipB1a and BL21/pELipAB-LipB3a yielded 29- and 19-fold production of the active lipase in comparison with the single expression cassette plasmid system E. coli BL21/pELipABa, respectively. Although the lipase amount was equally expressed in all these expression systems (40% of total cellular protein) and only a small fraction of the overexpressed lipase was folded in vivo into the functional lipase in soluble form whereas the main fraction was still inactive in the form of inclusion bodies. Another controversial finding was that the dual expression cassette plasmid systems E. coli BL21/pELipAB-LipB1a and E. coli/pELipAB-LipB3a secreted the active lipase into the culture medium of 51 and 29 times as high as the single expression cassette plasmid system E. coli pELipABa did, respectively, which has never been reported before. Another interesting finding was that the lipase form LipA6xHis (mature lipase fused with 6× histidine tag) expressed in the dual expression cassette plasmid systems (BL21/pELipA-LipB1a and BL21/pELipA-LipB3a) showed no lipase activity although the expression level of the lipase and two chaperone forms LipB1 and LipB3 in these systems remained as high as that in E. coli BL21/pELipABa + pELipB1k, BL21/pELipABa + pELipB3k, BL21/pELipAB-LipB1a, and BL21/pELipAB-LipB3a. The addition of Neptune oil or detergents into the LB medium increased the lipase production and secretion by up to 94%.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings demonstrated that a dual expression cassette plasmid system E. coli could overproduce and secrete the active chaperone-dependent lipase (subfamilies I.1 and I.2) in vivo and an improved dual expression cassette plasmid system E. coli could be potentially applied for industrial-scale production of subfamily I.1 and I.2 lipases.

Co-expression of the lipase and foldase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa to a functional lipase in Escherichia coli

The lipA gene, a structural gene encoding for protein of molecular mass 48 kDa, and lipB gene, encoding for a lipase-specific chaperone with molecular mass of 35 kDa, of Pseudomonas aeruginosa B2264 were co-expressed in heterologous host Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) to obtain in vivo expression of functional lipase. The recombinant lipase was expressed with histidine tag at its N terminus and was purified to homogeneity using nickel affinity chromatography. The amino acid sequence of LipA and LipB of P. aeruginosa B2264 was 99-100% identical with the corresponding sequence of LipA and LipB of P. aeruginosa LST-03 and P. aeruginosa PA01, but it has less identity with Pseudomonas cepacia (Burkholderia cepacia) as it showed only 37.6% and 23.3% identity with the B. cepacia LipA and LipB sequence, respectively. The molecular mass of the recombinant lipase was found to be 48 kDa. The recombinant lipase exhibited optimal activity at pH 8.0 and 37 degrees C, though it was active between pH 5.0 and pH 9.0 and up to 45 degrees C. K (m) and V (max) values for recombinant P. aeruginosa lipase were found to be 151.5 +/- 29 microM and 217 +/- 22.5 micromol min(-1) mg(-1) protein, respectively.

Cloning and expression of gene, and activation of an organic solvent-stable lipase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa LST-03

Organic solvent-tolerant Pseudomonas aeruginosa LST-03 secretes an organic solvent-stable lipase, LST-03 lipase. The gene of the LST-03 lipase (Lip9) and the gene of the lipase-specific foldase (Lif9) were cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli. In the cloned 2.6 kbps DNA fragment, two open reading frames, Lip9 consisting of 933 nucleotides which encoded 311 amino acids and Lif9 consisting of 1,020 nucleotides which encoded 340 amino acids, were found. The overexpression of the lipase gene (lip9) was achieved when T7 promoter was used and the signal peptide of the lipase was deleted. The expressed amount of the lipase was greatly increased and overexpressed lipase formed inclusion body in E. coli cell. The collected inclusion body of the lipase from the cell was easily solubilized by urea and activated by using lipase-specific foldase of which 52 or 58 amino acids of N-terminal were deleted. Especially, the N-terminal methionine of the lipase of which the signal peptide was deleted was released in E. coli and the amino acid sequence was in agreement with that of the originally-produced lipase by P. aeruginosa LST-03. Furthermore, the overexpressed and solubilized lipase of which the signal peptide was deleted was more effectively activated by lipase-specific foldase.

A novel lipase/chaperone pair from Ralstonia sp. M1: analysis of the folding interaction and evidence for gene loss in R. solanacearum

A microbial strain (referred to as M1) that produces an extracellular lipase was isolated from a soil sample in Vietnam, and identified as a Ralstonia species by partial sequencing of its 16S rDNA. A genomic library was constructed from Pst I fragments, and a colony showing lipase activity was selected for further analysis. Sequencing of the 4.7-kb insert in this clone (named M1-72) revealed one incomplete and three complete ORFs, predicted to encode a partial hypothetical glutaminyl tRNA synthetase (304 aa), a hypothetical transmembrane protein (500 aa), a lipase (328 aa) and a lipase chaperone (352 aa), respectively. Alignment of the insert sequence with the corresponding region of the genome of R. solanacearum GMI1000 (GenBank Accession No. AL646081) confirmed the presence in the latter of the genes for the hypothetical transmembrane protein and glutaminyl tRNA synthetase, which exhibited 89-91% identity to their counterparts in M1. However, R. solanacearum GMI1000 lacks the complete lipase-encoding gene and the major part of the chaperone-encoding gene, creating a so-called "black hole". The deduced amino acid sequences of the products of the lipase gene lipA and chaperone gene lipB from strain M1 shared 49.3-60.3% and 23.9-32.7% identity, respectively, with those of the Burkholderia lipase/chaperone subfamily I.2. lipB is located downstream of lipA, and separated from it by only 9 bp, and each gene has a putative ribosome binding site. The mature lipase LipA, a His-tagged derivative (LipAhis), the tagged full-length chaperone LipBhis and a truncated form (DeltaLipBhis) lacking the 56 N-terminal residues were expressed in Escherichia coli BL21. LipA, LipAhis and DeltaLipBhis could be expressed at high levels (70, 15 and 12 mg/g wet cells, respectively) and were easily purified. However, LipBhis was expressed at a much lower level which precluded purification. The specific activity of purified LipAhis, expressed on its own, was very low (<52 U/mg). However, after co-incubation with the purified DeltaLipBhis in vitro, the specific activity of the enzyme was markedly enhanced, indicating that the chaperone facilitated correct folding of the enzyme. A lipase:chaperone ratio of 1:10 was found to be optimal, yielding an enzyme preparation with a specific activity of 650 U/mg.

Cloning and characterization of the lipase and lipase activator protein from Vibrio vulnificus CKM-1

The gene (lipA) encoding the extracellular lipase and its downstream gene (lipB) from Vibrio vulnificus CKM-1 were cloned and sequenced. Nucleotide sequence analysis and alignments of amino acid sequences suggest that Lip Ais a member of bacterial lipase family I.1 and that LipB is a lipase activator of LipA. The active LipA was produced in recombinant Escherichia coli cells only in the presence of the lipB. In the hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl esters and triacylglycerols, using the reactivated LipA, the optimum chain lengths for the acyl moiety on the substrate were C14 for ester hydrolysis and C10 to C12 for triacylglycerol hydrolysis.

Lipase-Specific Foldases

Lipases represent the most important class of enzymes used in biotechnology. Many bacteria produce and secrete lipases but the enzymes originating from Pseudomonas and Burkholderia species seem to be particularly useful for a wide variety of different biocatalytic applications. These enzymes are usually encoded in an operon together with a second gene which codes for a lipase-specific foldase, Lif, which is necessary to obtain enzymatically active lipase. A detailed analysis based on amino acid homology has suggested the classification of Lif proteins into four different families and also revealed the presence of a conserved motif, Rx1x2FDY(F/C)L(S/T)A. Recent experimental evidence suggests that Lifs are so-called steric chaperones, which exert their physiological function by lowering energetic barriers during the folding of their cognate lipases, thereby providing essential steric information needed to fold lipases into their enzymatically active conformation.

Expression and characterization of a novel enantioselective lipase from Acinetobacter species SY-01

A novel lipase gene, lipase A, of Acinetobacter species SY-01 (A. species SY-01) was cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Bacillus subtilis 168. The deduced amino acid (aa) sequences for the lipase A and its chaperone, lipase-specific chaperone, were found to encode mature proteins of 339 aa (37.2 kDa) and 347 aa (38.1 kDa), respectively. The aa sequence of lipase A and lipase-specific chaperone shared high homology 82 and 67% identity with the lipase A and the lipase B of A. species RAG-1. This new lipase was defined as a group I Proteobacterial lipase family. The expressed lipase A was purified through sequential treatment with Q-Sepharose, Resource Q, and Superdex-S75 columns. The maximal activity was observed at 50 degrees C for hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl monoesters and found to be stable at pH 9-11, with optimal activity at pH 10. Lipase A hydrolyzed wide range of fatty acid esters of p-nitrophenyl, but preferentially hydrolyzed short length acyl chains (C2 and C4). Moreover, lipase A from A. species SY-01 catalyzed hydrolysis of the two acetate isomers of cis-(+/-)-2-(bromomethyl)-2-(2,4-dichloro phenyl)-1,3-dioxolane-4-methyl acetate, an intermediate required for the synthesis of Itraconazole which was an anti-fungal drug, at different rate and yielded cis-(-)-isomer in 81.5% conversion with 91.9% enantiomeric excess.

Homologous expression of the lipase and ABC transporter gene cluster, tliDEFA, enhances lipase secretion in Pseudomonas spp

The ABC transporter TliDEF was found to be an efficient secretory apparatus for extracellular lipase TliA in Pseudomonas fluorescens. For the enhanced secretion of the lipase, we tried to coexpress tliA and tliDEF in various Pseudomonas species. Whereas the coexpression of tliA and tliDEF was required for the lipase secretion in P. fragi, the expression of tliA was sufficient for the lipase secretion in P. fluorescens, P. syringae, and P. putida, indicating the existence of compatible ABC transporter in these species. However, P. fluorescens harboring tliDEFA secreted much more lipase than P. fluorescens harboring only tliA, but the tliDEF was functional only at temperatures below 30 degrees C. The recombinant P. fluorescens overexpressing tliDEFA showed the highest secretion level, 217 U/ml. OD (optical density) (28 microg/ml. OD) of lipase in Luria-Bertani medium under microaerated conditions. With the increase of aeration, the lipase production was decreased and the lipase seemed to be degraded as the cells entered the cell death phase. These results demonstrate that P. fluorescens can be used as a host system for the secretory production of the lipase using the ABC transporter, thus producing lipase in over 14% of the total protein.

Lipase and its modulator from Pseudomonas sp. strain KFCC 10818: proline-to-glutamine substitution at position 112 induces formation of enzymatically active lipase in the absence of the modulator

A lipase gene, lipK, and a lipase modulator gene, limK, of Pseudomonas sp. strain KFCC 10818 have been cloned, sequenced, and expressed in Escherichia coli. The limK gene is located immediately downstream of the lipK gene. Enzymatically active lipase was produced only in the presence of the limK gene. The effect of the lipase modulator LimK on the expression of active lipase was similar to those of the Pseudomonas subfamily I.1 and I.2 lipase-specific foldases (Lifs). The deduced amino acid sequence of LimK shares low homology (17 to 19%) with the known Pseudomonas Lifs, suggesting that Pseudomonas sp. strain KFCC 10818 is only distantly related to the subfamily I.1 and I.2 Pseudomonas species. Surprisingly, a lipase variant that does not require LimK for its correct folding was isolated in the study to investigate the functional interaction between LipK and LimK. When expressed in the absence of LimK, the P112Q variant of LipK formed an active enzyme and displayed 63% of the activity of wild-type LipK expressed in the presence of LimK. These results suggest that the Pro(112) residue of LipK is involved in a key step of lipase folding. We expect that the novel finding of this study may contribute to future research on efficient expression or refolding of industrially important lipases and on the mechanism of lipase folding.

Recombinant expression of the Candida rugosa lip4 lipase in Escherichia coli

It is difficult to express recombinant Candida rugosa lipases (CRLs) in heterologous systems, since C. rugosa utilizes a nonuniversal serine codon CUG for leucine. In this study, recombinant LIP4 in which all 19 CUG codons had been converted to a universal serine codon was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3). The recombinant LIP4 was found mainly in the inclusion bodies and showed a low catalytic activity. To increase the amount of soluble form and activity of recombinant LIP4, the DNA was fused to the gene for thioredoxin (TrxFus-LIP4) and then expressed in E. coli strain AD494(DE3). This strategy promotes the formation of disulfide bonds in the cytosol and yields enzymatically active forms of LIP4. The purified recombinant TrxFus-LIP4 and LIP4 expressed in AD494(DE3) had the same catalytic profiles. In addition, recombinant LIP4 had higher esterase activities toward long-chain ester and lower lipase activities toward tributyrin, triolein, and olive oil. This system for the expression of fungal lipase in E. coli strain AD494(DE3) is reliable and may produce enzymatically active forms of recombinant lipase without an in vitro refolding procedure.

In vitro analysis of roles of a disulfide bridge and a calcium binding site in activation of Pseudomonas sp. strain KWI-56 lipase

The expression of lipase from Pseudomonas sp. strain KWI-56 (recently reclassified as Burkholderia cepacia) had been found to be dependent on an activator gene (act) downstream of its structural gene (lip). In this work, the mature lipase was synthesized in an enzymatically active form with a cell-free Escherichia coli S30 coupled transcription-translation system by expressing a recombinant lipase gene (rlip) encoding the mature lipase in the presence of its purified activator or by coexpression of rlip and act. The in vitro expression systems were used for studying the folding process of the lipase. The addition of dithiothreitol in the expression systems decreased the activity dramatically without affecting the synthesis level of the lipase, whereas the in vitro-synthesized active lipase was relatively stable even in the presence of dithiothreitol. This phenomenon was further investigated by constructing mutant lipase genes only in vitro by PCR without gene cloning. Replacements of cysteine residues (Cys190 and Cys270) forming a sole putative disulfide bond to serine residues decreased the lipase activity greatly, suggesting that the disulfide bond was essential for the proper folding of the lipase. In addition, replacing Asp242 and Asp288, which were deduced to be part of a Ca(2+) binding site, also greatly decreased the activities of the in vitro-synthesized lipases. The role of the Ca(2+) binding site in the activation of the lipase is also discussed.

Bacterial biocatalysts: molecular biology, three-dimensional structures, and biotechnological applications of lipases

Bacteria produce and secrete lipases, which can catalyze both the hydrolysis and the synthesis of long-chain acylglycerols. These reactions usually proceed with high regioselectivity and enantioselectivity, and, therefore, lipases have become very important stereoselective biocatalysts used in organic chemistry. High-level production of these biocatalysts requires the understanding of the mechanisms underlying gene expression, folding, and secretion. Transcription of lipase genes may be regulated by quorum sensing and two-component systems; secretion can proceed either via the Sec-dependent general secretory pathway or via ABC transporters. In addition, some lipases need folding catalysts such as the lipase-specific foldases and disulfide-bond-forming proteins to achieve a secretion-competent conformation. Three-dimensional structures of bacterial lipases were solved to understand the catalytic mechanism of lipase reactions. Structural characteristics include an alpha/beta hydrolase fold, a catalytic triad consisting of a nucleophilic serine located in a highly conserved Gly-X-Ser-X-Gly pentapeptide, and an aspartate or glutamate residue that is hydrogen bonded to a histidine. Four substrate binding pockets were identified for triglycerides: an oxyanion hole and three pockets accommodating the fatty acids bound at position sn-1, sn-2, and sn-3. The differences in size and the hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of these pockets determine the enantiopreference of a lipase. The understanding of structure-function relationships will enable researchers to tailor new lipases for biotechnological applications. At the same time, directed evolution in combination with appropriate screening systems will be used extensively as a novel approach to develop lipases with high stability and enantioselectivity.

A low-Mr lipase activation factor cooperating with lipase modulator protein LimL in Pseudomonas sp. strain 109

Pseudomonas sp. strain 109 produces a unique lipase (LipL) which efficiently catalyses intramolecular transesterification of omega-hydroxyesters to form macrocyclic lactones. In vivo production of enzymically active LipL requires lipase modulator protein (LimL), which functions as a molecular chaperone for the correct folding of LipL. However, previous work has shown that LipL forms a tight complex with LimL in vitro and the resulting LipL-LimL complex is only partially active, suggesting an additional mechanism that facilitates the dissociation of the complex to form enzymically active LipL. In the present work, a low-Mr compound (lipase activation factor, LAF) was found in Pseudomonas sp. strain 109 that when added to the LipL-LimL complex resulted in the activation of LipL. Ca2+ ions also enhanced lipase activity, but the instantaneous activation by Ca2+ was different from the gradual and time-dependent activation by LAF, indicating the novel nature of this compound. LAF passed through an ultrafiltration membrane with an Mr cut-off of 3000 and showed an apparent Mr of 330+/-30 on Superdex Peptide gel-filtration chromatography. Treatment of the LipL-LimL complex with LAF liberated free active LipL, indicating that LAF was necessary to dissociate the LipL-LimL complex.

LipC, a second lipase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, is LipB and Xcp dependent and is transcriptionally regulated by pilus biogenesis components

We have isolated cosmids that complement a Pseudomonas aeruginosa export-impaired mutant by increasing growth on lipid agar, a medium that requires lipase expression and export. These cosmids encode a previously unidentified lipase, LipC, which has high homology to the P. aeruginosa lipA gene product. Like LipA, LipC activity requires the chaperone activity of the lipB gene product and a functional xcp gene cluster for export. However, expression of LipC is barely detectable in a wild-type background. Transposon insertions that increase lipC promoter activity have been obtained that inactivate two pilus biogenesis genes, pilX and pilY1. This suggests that these proteins either directly or indirectly repress the expression of LipC and may be involved in transducing an extracellular signal that regulates this lipase.

High-level formation of active Pseudomonas cepacia lipase after heterologous expression of the encoding gene and its modified chaperone in Escherichia coli and rapid in vitro refolding

The lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia ATCC 21808 (recently reclassified as Burkholderia cepacia) is widely used by organic chemists for enantioselective synthesis and is manufactured from recombinant P. cepacia harboring on a plasmid the clustered genes for lipase and its chaperone. High levels of expression of inactive lipase (40%) in Escherichia coli were achieved with pCYTEXP1 under the control of the strong, temperature-inducible lambdaPRL promoter. However, no overexpression of the lipase chaperone was achieved in E. coli. Thus, chemical refolding of inactive lipase in the absence of its chaperone yielded only 25 U/mg, compared to 3,470 U of the purified lipase secreted by recombinant P. cepacia per mg. Sequence analysis of the chaperone revealed a high GC content (>90%) in the 5' region of the gene and the presence of a putative membrane anchor at the N terminus. Hence, the 5' region of the gene was replaced by a synthetic fragment, and the putative membrane anchor was removed by deletion of the first 34 or 70 N-terminal amino acids. Only truncation of the gene led to overexpression of the chaperone (up to 60%) in E. coli. With this chaperone, it was possible to obtain for the first time in a simple refolding procedure a highly active Pseudomonas lipase (classes I and II) expressed in E. coli with a specific activity of up to 4,850 U/mg and a yield of 314,000 U/g of E. coli wet cells.

Modulator-mediated synthesis of active lipase of Pseudomonas sp. 109 by Escherichia coli cell-free coupled transcription/translation system

Catalytically active lipase was synthesized using Escherichia coli S30 extract from the signal-deleted lipL gene (lipL) in the presence of its N-terminal hydrophobic fragment-truncated modulator (rLimL) that was purified from the overexpressing E. coli cells. The specific activity of the lipase thus synthesized was 125 times higher than that of the purified one from Pseudomonas sp. 109. No lipase activity was detected in the absence of rLimL, even though the lipase protein itself was synthesized. Active lipase was also produced in vitro by coexpression of rlipL and the modulator gene (rlimL), although a much smaller amount of the lipase was formed. In the absence of rLimL, aggregates of the lipase were formed during its folding process. The addition of rLimL proportionally raised both lipase solubility and enzyme activity. An unstable but high activity peak of the lipase was found during its folding process.

Development of a lipase fermentation process that uses a recombinant Pseudomonas alcaligenes strain

Pseudomonas alcaligenes M-1 secretes an alkaline lipase, which has excellent characteristics for the removal of fatty stains under modern washing conditions. A fed-batch fermentation process based on the secretion of the alkaline lipase from P. alcaligenes was developed. Due to the inability of P. alcaligenes to grow on glucose, citric acid and soybean oil were applied as substrates in the batch phase and feed phase, respectively. The gene encoding the high-alkaline lipase from P. alcaligenes was isolated and characterized. Amplification of lipase gene copies in P. alcaligenes with the aid of low- and high-copy-number plasmids resulted in an increase of lipase expression that was apparently colinear with the gene copy number. It was found that overexpression of the lipase helper gene, lipB, produced a stimulating effect in strains with high copy numbers (> 20) of the lipase structural gene, lipA. In strains with lipA on a low-copy-number vector, the lipB gene did not show any effect, suggesting that LipB is required in a low ratio to LipA only. During scaling up of the fermentation process to 100 m3, severe losses in lipase productivity were observed. Simulations have identified an increased level of dissolved carbon dioxide as the most probable cause for the scale-up losses. A large-scale fermentation protocol with a reduced dissolved carbon dioxide concentration resulted in a substantial elimination of the scale-up loss.

Characterization of the Vibrio cholerae El Tor lipase operon lipAB and a protease gene downstream of the hly region

We have cloned and sequenced a region encoding a lipase operon and a putative, previously uncharacterized metalloprotease of Vibrio cholerae O1. These lie downstream of hlyA and hlyB, which encode the El Tor hemolysin and methyl-accepting chemotactic factor, respectively. Previous reports identified the hlyC gene downstream of hlyAB, encoding an 18.3-kDa protein. However, we now show that this open reading frame (ORF) encodes a 33-kDa protein, and since the amino acid sequence is highly homologous to the triacylglyceride-specific lipase of Pseudomonas spp., hlyC has been renamed lipA. LipA contains the highly conserved pentapeptide and catalytic triad amino acid regions of the catalytic sites of other lipases. The region downstream of lipA has been sequenced and has revealed ORFs lipB and prtV. The amino acid sequence of lipB is homologous to those of the accessory lipase proteins (lipase-specific foldase) required by Pseudomonas and various other bacterial species for the production of mature active lipase, and in agreement with this, we show that both lipA and lipB are required to restore a lipase-deficient lipA null mutant of V. cholerae. The intergenic stop codon for lipA overlaps the ribosome-binding site for lipB, and a stem-loop resembling a rho-independent terminator is present immediately downstream from lipB, suggesting that lipA and lipB form a lipase operon in V. cholerae. prtV lies downstream of lipAB but is transcribed in the opposite direction and is predicted to share the same putative transcriptional terminator with lipAB. The zinc-binding and catalytic domains conserved among many metalloproteases are present in PrtV, which is highly homologous to the immune inhibitor A (InA) metalloprotease of Bacillus thuringiensis. PrtV was visualized as approximately 102 kDa, which is consistent with the coding capacity of the gene. The genetic organization of this region suggests that it is possibly part of a pathogenicity island, encoding products capable of damaging host cells and/or involved in nutrient acquisition by V. cholerae. However, neither lipA nor prtV null mutants were attenuated in the infant mouse model, nor did they exhibit reduced colonization potential compared with wild type in competition experiments.

Anaerobically controlled expression system derived from the arcDABC operon of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: application to lipase production

The anaerobically inducible arcDABC operon encodes the enzymes of the arginine deiminase pathway in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Upon induction, the arcAB mRNAs and proteins reach high intracellular levels, because of a strong anaerobically controlled promoter and mRNA processing in arcD, leading to stable downstream transcripts. We explored the usefulness of this system for the construction of expression vectors. The lacZ gene of Escherichia coli was expressed to the highest levels when fused close to the arc promoter. Insertion of lacZ further downstream into arcA or arcB did not stabilize the intrinsically unstable lacZ mRNA. On the contrary, lacZ mRNA appeared to be a vulnerable endonuclease target destabilizing arcAB mRNAs in the 5'-to-3' direction in P. aeruginosa. The native arc promoter was modified for optional expression in the -10 sequence and in the -40 region, which is a binding site for the anaerobic regulator ANR. In P. aeruginosa grown either anaerobically or with oxygen limitation in unshaken cultures, this promoter was stronger than the induced tac promoter. The P. aeruginosa lipAH genes, which encode extracellular lipase and lipase foldase, respectively, were fused directly to the modified arc promoter in an IncQ vector plasmid. Semianaerobic static cultures of P. aeruginosa PAO1 carrying this recombinant plasmid overproduced extracellular lipase 30-fold during stationary phase compared with the production by strain PAO1 without the plasmid. Severe oxygen limitation, in contrast, resulted in poor lipase productivity despite effective induction of the ANR-dependent promoter, suggesting that secretion of active lipase is blocked by the absence of oxygen. In conclusion, the modified arc promoter is useful for driving the expression of cloned genes in P. aeruginosa during oxygen-limited growth and stationary phase.

Lipase modulator protein (LimL) of Pseudomonas sp. strain 109

Plasmids containing a Pseudomonas sp. strain 109 extracellular lipase gene (lipL) lacking NH2-terminal sequence and a lipase modulator gene (limL) lacking the NH2-terminal hydrophobic region were constructed and expressed independently in Escherichia coli by using the T7 promoter expression vector system. Recombinant LipL (rLipL) was produced as inclusion bodies, whereas recombinant LimL (rLimL) was present as a soluble protein. During in vitro renaturation of the purified rLipL inclusion bodies after they had been dissolved in 8 M urea, addition of rLimL was essential to solubilize and modulate rLipL. The solubility and activity of rLipL were influenced by the rLimL/rLipL molar ratio; the highest level of solubility was obtained at an rLimL/rLipL ratio of 4:5, whereas the highest activity level was obtained at an rLimL/rLipL ratio of 4:1. After renaturation, rLipL and rLimL were coprecipitated with anti-rLipL antibody, indicating the formation of an rLipL-rLimL complex. Activity of the native lipase purified from Pseudomonas sp. strain 109 was also inhibited by rLimL. By Western blotting (immunoblotting) with anti-rLimL antibody, native LimL was detected in Pseudomonas cells solubilized by sarcosyl treatment. LimL was purified from Pseudomonas sp. strain 109, and the NH2-terminal amino acid sequence was determined to be NH2-Leu-Glu-Pro-Ser-Pro-Ala-Pro-. We propose that to prevent membrane degradation, LimL weakens lipase activity inside the cell, especially in the periplasm, in addition to modulating lipase folding.

Three-dimensional structure of Schistosoma japonicum glutathione S-transferase fused with a six-amino acid conserved neutralizing epitope of gp41 from HIV

The 3-dimensional crystal structure of glutathione S-transferase (GST) of Schistosoma japonicum (Sj) fused with a conserved neutralizing epitope on gp41 (glycoprotein, 41 kDa) of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) (Muster T et al., 1993, J Virol 67:6642-6647) was determined at 2.5 A resolution. The structure of the 3-3 isozyme rat GST of the mu gene class (Ji X, Zhang P, Armstrong RN, Gilliland GL, 1992, Biochemistry 31:10169-10184) was used as a molecular replacement model. The structure consists of a 4-stranded beta-sheet and 3 alpha-helices in domain 1 and 5 alpha-helices in domain 2. The space group of the Sj GST crystal is P4(3)2(1)2, with unit cell dimensions of a = b = 94.7 A, and c = 58.1 A. The crystal has 1 GST monomer per asymmetric unit, and 2 monomers that form an active dimer are related by crystallographic 2-fold symmetry. In the binding site, the ordered structure of reduced glutathione is observed. The gp41 peptide (Glu-Leu-Asp-Lys-Trp-Ala) fused to the C-terminus of Sj GST forms a loop stabilized by symmetry-related GSTs. The Sj GST structure is compared with previously determined GST structures of mammalian gene classes mu, alpha, and pi. Conserved amino acid residues among the 4 GSTs that are important for hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions for dimer association and glutathione binding are discussed.

Chaperone-mediated activation in vivo of a Pseudomonas cepacia lipase

An extracellular Pseudomonas cepacia lipase, LipA, is inactive when expressed in the absence of the product of the limA gene. Evidence has been presented that LimA is a molecular chaperone. The lipA and limA genes have been cloned in separate and independently inducible expression systems in Escherichia coli. These systems were used to test the molecular chaperone hypothesis by investigating whether LimA could activate presynthesized prelipase and whether presynthesized LimA could activate newly synthesized prelipase. The results show that LimA cannot activate presynthesized prelipase and that presynthesized LimA can activate only a limited number of de novo synthesized prelipase molecules. Co-immunoprecipitation of prelipase/lipase with LimA generated a 1:1 complex of prelipase/lipase and LimA. The results suggest that a 1:1 complex of LipA and LimA is required for prelipase processing and secretion of active lipase.

Bacterial lipases

Many different bacterial species produce lipases which hydrolyze esters of glycerol with preferably long-chain fatty acids. They act at the interface generated by a hydrophobic lipid substrate in a hydrophilic aqueous medium. A characteristic property of lipases is called interfacial activation, meaning a sharp increase in lipase activity observed when the substrate starts to form an emulsion, thereby presenting to the enzyme an interfacial area. As a consequence, the kinetics of a lipase reaction do not follow the classical Michaelis-Menten model. With only a few exceptions, bacterial lipases are able to completely hydrolyze a triacylglycerol substrate although a certain preference for primary ester bonds has been observed. Numerous lipase assay methods are available using coloured or fluorescent substrates which allow spectroscopic and fluorimetric detection of lipase activity. Another important assay is based on titration of fatty acids released from the substrate. Newly developed methods allow to exactly determine lipase activity via controlled surface pressure or by means of a computer-controlled oil drop tensiometer. The synthesis and secretion of lipases by bacteria is influenced by a variety of environmental factors like ions, carbon sources, or presence of non-metabolizable polysaccharides. The secretion pathway is known for Pseudomonas lipases with P. aeruginosa lipase using a two-step mechanism and P. fluorescens lipase using a one-step mechanism. Additionally, some Pseudomonas lipases need specific chaperone-like proteins assisting their correct folding in the periplasm. These lipase-specific foldases (Lif-proteins) which show a high degree of amino acid sequence homology among different Pseudomonas species are coded for by genes located immediately downstream the lipase structural genes. A comparison of different bacterial lipases on the basis of primary structure revealed only very limited sequence homology. However, determination of the three-dimensional structure of the P. glumae lipase indicated that at least some of the bacterial lipases will presumably reveal a conserved folding pattern called the alpha/beta-hydrolase fold, which has been described for other microbial and human lipases. The catalytic site of lipases is buried inside the protein and contains a serine-protease-like catalytic triad consisting of the amino acids serine, histidine, and aspartate (or glutamate). The Ser-residue is located in a strictly conserved beta-epsilon Ser-alpha motif. The active site is covered by a lid-like alpha-helical structure which moves away upon contact of the lipase with its substrate, thereby exposing hydrophobic residues at the protein's surface mediating the contact between protein and substrate.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)