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Recombination of diverse natural evolved domains within a superfamily offers greater opportunity for enzyme function leaps. How to recombine protein modules from distant parents with less disruption in cross-interfaces is a challenging issue. Here, we identified the existence of a key motif, the sequence VVSVN(D)YR, within a structural motif ψ loop in the α/β-hydrolase fold superfamily, by using a MEME server and the PROMOTIF program. To obtain thermostable lipase-like enzymes, two chimeras were engineered at the key motif regions through recombination of domains from a mesophilic lipase and a hyperthermophilic esterase/peptidase with amino acid identity less than 21 %. The chimeras retained the desirable substrate preference of their mesophilic parent and exhibited more than 100-fold increased thermostability at 50 °C. Through site-directed mutation, we further improved activity of the chimera by 4.6-fold. The recombination strategy presented here enables the creation of novel catalysts.

Bacterial β-glucosidase (BGL), as a major component of the cellulase system, is a rate limiting factor during enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. In an effort to obtain thermostable BGLs desirable for application in the conversion of cellulose to glucose, we report a novel recombinant BGL from the thermophile Caldicellulosiruptor bescii (CbBgl1A). CbBgl1A could cleave a range of cellooligosaccharides and aryl-β-glycosides and showed a substrate preference for 4-nitrophenyl β- d -glucopyranoside (pNPGlc) with a kcat/Km value of 84.0 s−1 mM−1. The difference in catalysis efficiency for cellobiose with pNPGlc was mainly caused by the weak binding ability as analyzed by kinetic assay and molecular modeling. The enzyme could tolerate a high concentration of glucose with a Ki value of 113.8 mM. CbBgl1A synergistically works with several endo- or exoglucanases. The highest synergy value of 2.6 was obtained for the hydrolysis of regenerated amorphous cellulose using a combination of cellobiohydrolase CbCbh48A from C. bescii and CbBgl1A at a molar ratio of 1:5, where the complete conversion of oligosaccharides to glucose was obtained in 2 h.

Acylpeptide hydrolase of Aeropyrum pernix K1 is composed of a catalytic α/β hydrolase domain and a non-catalytic β-propeller domain. The Glu88 residue of the propeller domain is highly conserved in the prolyl oligopeptidase family and forms an inter-domain salt bridge with Arg526, a key residue for substrate binding. We have dissected the functions of Glu88 using site-directed mutagenesis, steady-state kinetics analyses, and molecular dynamics simulations. In E88A and E88A/R526K mutants, with a broken inter-domain salt bridge and a positive charge at position 526, catalytic activities for both a peptidase substrate and an esterase substrate were almost abolished. Analysis of the pH dependence of the mutants' reaction kinetics indicates that these mutations lead to changes in the electrostatic environment of the active site, which can be modulated by chloride ions. These findings indicate that the neutralization at position 526 is favorable for the activity of the enzyme, which is also verified by the catalytic behavior of E88A/R526V mutant. All mutants have lower thermodynamic stability than the wild-type. Therefore, Glu88 plays two major roles in the function of the enzyme: neutralizing the positive charge of Arg526, thereby increasing the enzymatic activity, and forming the Glu88–Arg526 salt bridge, thereby stabilizing the protein.

Enzyme promiscuity is a prerequisite for fast divergent evolution of biocatalysts. A phosphotriesterase-like lactonase (PLL) from Geobacillus kaustophilus HTA426 (GkaP) exhibits main lactonase and promiscuous phosphotriesterase activities. To understand its catalytic and evolutionary mechanisms, we investigated a "hot spot" in the active site by saturation mutagenesis as well as X-ray crystallographic analyses. We found that position 99 in the active site was involved in substrate discrimination. One mutant, Y99L, exhibited 11-fold improvement over wild-type in reactivity (k(cat)/K-m) toward the phosphotriesterase substrate ethyl-paraoxon, but showed 15-fold decrease toward the lactonase substrate delta-decanolactone, resulting in a 157-fold inversion of the substrate specificity. Structural analysis of Y99L revealed that the mutation causes a similar to 6.6 angstrom outward shift of adjacent loop 7, which may cause increased flexibility of the active site and facilitate accommodation and/or catalysis of organophosphate substrate. This study provides for the PLL family an example of how the evolutionary route from promiscuity to specificity can derive from very few mutations, which promotes alteration in the conformational adjustment of the active site loops, in turn draws the capacity of substrate binding and activity.

In order to study the different effects of ginsenosides with similar structures, research on interactions between ginsenoside Rg1, Re and lysozyme was carried out by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and molecular docking. The 1:1 and 2:1 noncovalent complexes of ginsenosides and lysozyme were observed in the mass spectra and the dissociation constants for them were directly calculated based on peak intensities of lysozyme and its noncovalent complexes with ginsenosides. The results showed that the 1:1 complex of ginsenoside Rg1 and lysozyme was more stable than that of ginsenoside Re and lysozyme. As the acidity increased, the stabilities of the 1:1 complexes of Rg1, Re and lysozyme both decreased. Interestingly, as the acidity increased, the stability of the 2:1 complex of Rg1 and lysozyme increased while that of Re decreased. From the result of molecular docking, ginsenosides interacted with the active sites of lysozyme. And the stability of the complexes could be affected by the conformation changes of lysozyme as acidity increased.

The PH1704 protease from hyperthermophilic archaean Pyrococcus horikoshii OT3 is a member of DJ-1/ThiJ/PfpI superfamily with diverse functional subclasses. The recombinant PH1704 was efficiently purified and was systematically characterized by a combination of substrate specificity analysis, steady-state kinetics study and molecular docking research. The homogeneous protease was obtained as a presumed dodecamer with molecular weight of ∼240 kDa. Iodoacetamide strongly inhibited the peptidase activity, confirming that Cys100 is a nucleophilic residue. The recombinant protein was identified as both an aminopeptidase and an endopeptidase. Experimental data showed that L-R-amc was the best substrate of PH1704. Structural interaction fingerprint analysis (SIFt) indicated the binding pose of PH1704 and showed that Tyr120 is important in substrate binding. Kinetic parameters K cat and K cat /K m of the Y120P mutant with L-R-amc was about 7 and 7.8 times higher than that of the wild type (WT). For the endopeptidase Y120P with AAFR-amc, K cat and K cat /K m is 10- and 21- fold higher than that of WT. Experimental data indicate the important functions of Tyr120: involvement in enzyme activity to form a hydrogen bond with Cys100 and as an entrance gate of the substrate with Lys43. The results of this study can be used to investigate the DJ-1/ThiJ/PfpI superfamily.