Search

Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was employed to investigate potential lyophilization-induced changes in the secondary structure of lipases from Candida antarctica B and Pseudomonas cepacia. The secondary structure elements were determined by curve fitting of the amide III bands of the two lipases in the lyophilized state in KBr pellets and in solution. It was found that lyophilization decreased the α-helix and increased the β-sheet content. However, FT-IR analysis of crosslinked enzyme crystals of Pseudomonas cepacia lipase also indicated an increase in the β-sheet content, which appears despite the fact that the enzyme, being in the crystallized state, should possess native conformation. This result partially questions the suitability of FT-IR for analysis of the structure of solid proteins, at least as far as the β-sheet content is concerned, because it is possible that the method overestimates the β-sheets by measuring other hydrogen-bonded nonperiodic intermolecular structures. No significant modification was observed when lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia was lyophilized in the presence of methoxypoly(ethylene glycol). © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 64: 545–551, 1999.

Lipase from Pseudomonas cepacia was made soluble in 1,4-dioxane by lyophilization of the enzyme from aqueous solutions containing methoxypoly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). The solubility of the enzyme–PEG complex depended both on protein concentration and PEG protein ratio. Intrinsic protein fluorescence and far- and near-UV circular dichroism revealed that not only did the enzyme not unfold in the organic solvent, but rather became more compact. This was seen by the slight quenching of fluorescence intensity and by the enhancement of the near-UV circular dichroism negative signals, which are indicative of stronger interactions of tryptophanyl and/or tyrosyl residues among themselves or with other parts of the enzyme molecule. The specific activity of the lipase–PEG complex in the organic solvent was at least 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the enzyme powder. This can be attributed both to the maintenance of native conformation and to enzyme dissolution in the reaction medium which should minimize possible limitations to enzyme–substrate interactions. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Biotechnol Bioeng 64: 624–629, 1999.