A novel strategy for efficient disaccharides synthesis from glucose by β-glucosidase

Recent Advances in β-Glucosidase Sequence and Structure Engineering: A Brief Review

β-glucosidases (BGLs) play a crucial role in the degradation of lignocellulosic biomass as well as in industrial applications such as pharmaceuticals, foods, and flavors. However, the application of BGLs has been largely hindered by issues such as low enzyme activity, product inhibition, low stability, etc. Many approaches have been developed to engineer BGLs to improve these enzymatic characteristics to facilitate industrial production. In this article, we review the recent advances in BGL engineering in the field, including the efforts from our laboratory. We summarize and discuss the BGL engineering studies according to the targeted functions as well as the specific strategies used for BGL engineering.

Lacto-N-biose synthesis via a modular enzymatic cascade with ATP regeneration

Human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), the third most abundant solid component of human milk, are reported to be beneficial to infant health. The biosynthesis of lacto-N-biose (LNB), the building block for HMOs, suffers from excessive addition of cofactors and intermediate inhibition. Here, we developed an in vitro multienzyme cascade composed of LNB module, ATP regeneration, and pyruvate oxidase-driven phosphate recycling to produce LNB. The integration between ATP regeneration and Pi alleviation increased the LNB conversion ratio and resulted in a ΔG'° decrease of 540 KJ/mol. Under optimal conditions, the LNB conversion ratio was improved from 0.34 to 0.83 mol/mol GlcNAc and the ATP addition decreased to 50%. Finally, 0.96 mol/mol GlcNAc and 71.6 mg LNB g^-1 GlcNAc h^-1 of LNB yield was achieved in a 100-mL reaction system. The synergistic strategy not only paves the way for producing LNB but also facilitates other chemicals with multienzyme cascades.

Structural insight into a GH1 β-glucosidase from the oleaginous microalga, Nannochloropsis oceanica

Marine microalgae are promising sources of novel glycoside hydrolases (GHs), which have great value in biotechnical and industrial applications. Although many GH1 family β-glucosidases have been extensively studied, studies on β-glucosidases from microalgae are rare, and no structure of algal GH1 β-glucosidase has been reported. Here, we report the biochemical and structural study of a GH1 β-glucosidase BGLN1 from Nannochloropsis oceanica, an oleaginous microalga. Phylogenetic analysis of BGLN1, together with the known structures of GH1 β-glucosidases, has indicated that BGLN1 is branched at the root of the eukaryotic part of the phylogenetic tree. BGLN1 showed higher activity against laminaribiose compared to cello-oligosaccharides. Unlike most of the other GH1 β-glucosidases, BGLN1 is partially inhibited by metal ions. The crystal structure of BGLN1 revealed that BGLN1 adopts a typical (α/β)₈-barrel fold with variations in loops and N-terminal regions. BGLN1 contains extra residues at the N-terminus, which are essential for maintaining protein stability. BGLN1 has a more acidic substrate-binding pocket than other β-glucosidases, and the variations beyond the conserved -1 site determine the substrate specificity. These results indicate that GH enzymes from microalgae may have unique structural and functional features, which will provide new insight into carbohydrate synthesis and metabolism in marine microalgae.