Search

A bioinspired emulsification strategy resulted in substantially increased enzymatic activities in the degradation of synthetic polyisoprene with the latex clearing protein LcpK30, even with cis : trans ratios of 56 : 27.

The oxidation of alkanes into valuable chemical products is a vital reaction in organic synthesis. This reaction, however, is challenging due to the inertness of C-H bonds. Transition metal catalysts for C-H functionalization are frequently explored. Despite chemical alternatives, nature has also evolved powerful oxidative enzymes (e.g. methane monooxygenases, cytochromeP450 oxygenases, peroxygenases) that are capable of transforming C-H bonds under very mild conditions, with only the use of molecular oxygen or hydrogen peroxide as electron acceptors. Although the progress of alkane oxidation has been reviewed extensively, little attention has been paid to small alkane oxidation. The latter holds great potential for the manufacture of chemicals. In this contribution, we therefore will give a concise overview of the most relevant enzyme classes capable of small alkanes (

A high throughput GC-MS approach was developed, permitting the simultaneous analysis of up to three substrates and six products quantitatively from one reaction mixture. This screening approach was applied to site-saturation libraries of the novel unspecific peroxygenaseMthUPO. Using this setup enabled substantial insights from a small mutant library. Enzyme variants were identified exhibiting selective alkene epoxidation and substantially shifted regioselectivities to 2- and 1-octanol formations. Computational modelling rationalised the observed selectivity changes M. J. W, A. K., and N. H. thank the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (“Biotechnologie 2020+ Strukturvorhaben: Leibniz Research Cluster”, 031A360B) for generous funding. P. P. thanks the Landesgraduiertenförderung Sachsen-Anhalt for a PhD scholarship. The authors thank Eugen Schell for fruitful discussions. M. G. B. thanks the Generalitat de Catalunya AGAUR for a Beatriu de Pinós H2020 MSCA-Cofund 2018-BP-00204 project, the Spanish MICINN (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) for PID2019-111300GA-I00 project, and J. S. thanks the Spanish MIU (Ministerio de Universidades) for a predoctoral FPU fellowship FPU18/02380. The computer resources at MinoTauro and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center BSC-RES are acknowledged (RES-QSB-2019-3-262 0009 and RES-QSB-2020-2-0016)

The structure of a P450 ω-hydroxylase bound to its fatty acid product was determined, which revealed a narrow substrate tunnel that leads to the heme. The introduction of an arginine side chain in proximity to the carboxyl group of the fatty acid led to a reduced KM value for dodecanoic acid, which suggests the importance of an anchoring point in the active site. An increase in the flexibility of the substrate recognition region was also engineered, which resulted in a threefold improved product formation.

Three different reductases have been fused to CYP153 monooxygenase from Marinobacter aquaeolei. The most promising candidate has been analysed in terms of its linker part, which connects the reductase with the haem domain through sequence alignment of the corresponding reductase family CYP116B. To improve the artificial fusion construct, the linker length has been varied, thereby only altering the non-conserved middle part of the linker. This way seven artificial fusion constructs have been engineered, which varied in linker length between 11 and 32 amino acids (“natural” is 16). These variations showed a substantial impact on the fusion construct. The best mutant, extended by two amino acids, showed an improved activity (67 %), higher stability (67 % more active haem domain after 2 h) and a coupling efficiency of 94 % (55 % higher than before). Presented in this paper is an approach to find and optimise artificial fusion constructs for P450 monooxygenases.

Site-directed methods for the generation of genetic diversity are essential tools in the field of directed enzyme evolution. The Golden Gate cloning technique has been proven to be an efficient tool for a variety of cloning setups. The utilization of restriction enzymes which cut outside of their recognition domain allows the assembly of multiple gene fragments obtained by PCR amplification without altering the open reading frame of the reconstituted gene. We have developed a protocol, termed Golden Mutagenesis that allows the rapid, straightforward, reliable and inexpensive construction of mutagenesis libraries. One to five amino acid positions within a coding sequence could be altered simultaneously using a protocol which can be performed within one day. To facilitate the implementation of this technique, a software library and web application for automated primer design and for the graphical evaluation of the randomization success based on the sequencing results was developed. This allows facile primer design and application of Golden Mutagenesis also for laboratories, which are not specialized in molecular biology.

Background Galactose oxidase (GOase) catalyses the highly selective oxidation of terminal galactosides on a wide range of natural glycoconjugates and has found wide applications in biotechnology - particularly in biocatalysis. GOase is copper dependent and uses oxygen to oxidise the C6-primary alcohol of galactose and produces hydrogen peroxide. The enzyme activity can be conveniently assessed by a colorimetric assay. Objectives The objective of the present study was to develop an assay system, which is independent of the hydrogen peroxide formation to identify possible fluorinated GOase inhibitors. In case that the inhibitor bears a primary or secondary alcohol, it could also be oxidised by the enzyme. In such case, the colorimetric assay is not able to distinguish between substrate and inhibitor, since oxidation of both molecules would result in the formation of hydrogen peroxide. Methods D-galactose (D-Gal) was immobilised onto a gold surface functionalised by selfassembled monolayers (SAMs,). A GOase solution was then added to the surface in a droplet for a certain period of time and thereafter washed away. The activity of GOase on the immobilised D-Gal can then be quantified by MALDI-ToF MS. Results For inhibition studies, GOase was incubated together with 62.5 mM of deoxy-fluorinated monosaccharides on the D-Gal displaying platform. Five deoxy-fluorinated D-Gal showed a g50% inhibition of its activity. The array system has been moreover utilised to determine the apparent IC50 value of 3-F-Gal 15 as a proof of principle. Conclusion The developed array platform allows the fast identification of GOase substrates and inhibitors from a library of deoxy-fluorinated sugars using MALDI-ToF MS as a label-free readout method. In addition, the enzymatic reaction enables for the in situ activation of sugar-coated surfaces to bioorthogonal aldehydes, which can be utilised for subsequent chemical modifications.

CD73 is a dimeric ecto-5'-nucleotidase that is expressed on the exterior side of the plasma membrane. CD73 has important regulatory functions in the extracellular metabolism of certain nucleoside monophosphates, in particular adenosine monophosphate, and has been linked to a number of pathological conditions such as cancer and myocardial ischaemia. Here, we present the crystal structure of a soluble form of human soluble CD73 (sCD73) at 2.2 Å resolution, a truncated form of CD73 that retains ecto-5'-nucleotidase activity. With this structure we obtained insight into the dimerisation of CD73, active site architecture, and a sense of secondary modifications of the protein. The crystal structure reveals a conserved loop that is directly involved in the dimer-dimer interaction showing that the two subunits of the dimer are not linked by disulfide bridges. Using biophotonic microarray imaging we were able to confirm glycosylation of the enzyme and show that the enzyme is decorated with a variety of oligosaccharide structures. The crystal structure of sCD73 will aid the design of inhibitors or activator molecules for the treatment of several diseases and prove useful in explaining the possible roles of single nucleotide polymorphisms in physiology and disease.

O-mannosyl glycans are known to play an important role in regulating the function of α-dystroglycan (α-DG), as defective glycosylation is associated with various phenotypes of congenital muscular dystrophy. Despite the well-established biological significance of these glycans, questions regarding their precise molecular function remain unanswered. Further biological investigation will require synthetic methods for the generation of pure samples of homogeneous glycopeptides with diverse sequences. Here we describe the first total syntheses of glycopeptides containing the tetrasaccharide NeuNAcα2-3Galβ1-4GlcNAcβ1-2Manα, which is reported to be the most abundant O-mannosyl glycan on α-DG. Our approach is based on biomimetic stepwise assembly from the reducing end and also gives access to the naturally occurring mono-, di-, and trisaccharide substructures. In addition to the total synthesis, we have developed a "one-pot" enzymatic cascade leading to the rapid synthesis of the target tetrasaccharide. Finally, solid-phase synthesis of the desired glycopeptides directly on a gold microarray platform is described.

The enzymatic glycosylation of microarrays is a relatively young field in glycoscience. Platforms developed from other array technologies (e.g., proteins and nucleic acids) were successfully adopted in several proof-of-principle studies as a high-throughput tool for the generation of more complex carbohydrate structures using carbohydrate-processing enzymes. These arrays and the developed on-chip enzymatic glycosylation methodologies are reviewed in this article.

The synthesis of a number of aminoethyl glycosides of cell-surface carbohydrates, which are important intermediates for glycoarray synthesis, is described. A set of protocols was developed which provide these intermediates, in a short number of steps, from commercially available starting materials.

Lectin binding has been studied using the particle plasmon light-scattering properties of gold nanoparticles printed into an array format. Performance of the kinetic assay is evaluated from a detailed analysis of the binding of concanavalin A (ConA) and wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) to their target monosaccharides indicating affinity constants in the order of KD ∼10 nM for the lectin-monosaccharide interaction. The detection limits for the lectins following a 200 s injection time were determined as 10 ng/mL or 0.23 nM and 100 ng/mL or 0.93 nM, respectively. Subsequently, a nine-lectin screen was performed on the porcine and human fibrinogen glycoproteins. The observed spectra of lectin-protein specific binding rates result in characteristic patterns that evidently correlate with the structure of the glycans and allow one to distinguish between glycosylation of the porcine and human fibrinogens. The array technology has the potential to perform a multilectin screen of large numbers of proteins providing information on protein glycosylation and their microheterogeneity.

We report a highly efficient and selective method for the coupling of peptides and glycoconjugates bearing N-terminal cysteines to activated surfaces. This chemoselective method generates stable amide linkages without using any thiol additives.