Optimization of glutaryl-7-aminocephalosporanic acid acylase expression in E. coli.

A recombinant glutaryl-7-aminocephalosporanic acid acylase (GLA) from Pseudomonas N176 has been over-expressed in BL21(DE3)pLysS Escherichia coli cells. By alternating screenings of medium components and simplified factorial experimental designs, an improved microbial process was set up at shake-flask level (and then scaled up to 2L-fermentors) giving a approximately 80- and 120-fold increase in specific and volumetric enzyme productivity, respectively. Under the best expression conditions, approximately 1380 U/g cell and 16,100 U/L of GLA were produced versus the approximately 18 U/g cell and the approximately 140 U/L obtained in the initial standard conditions. Osmotic stress caused by the addition of NaCl, low cell growth rate linked to high biomass yield in the properly-designed rich medium, optimization of the time and the amount of inducer's addition and decrease of temperature during recombinant protein production, represent the factors concurring to achieve the reported expression level. Notably, this expression level is significantly higher than any previously described production of GLAs. High volumetric production, cost reduction and the simple one-step chromatographic purification of the His-tagged recombinant enzyme, makes this GLA an economic tool to be used in the 7-ACA industrial production.

Molecular probe for enzymatic activity with dual output.

A novel molecular probe for enzymatic activity with a dual output detection-mode has been developed. The probe effectively detected the presence of the bacterial protease penicillin-G-amidase; a single cleavage by the enzyme initiated the fragmentation of a self immolative dendritic platform to release two reporter units. The signals of the free reporters were detected by two different spectroscopic techniques, fluorescence and UV-vis. This is the first reported molecular probe with two different chromogenic reporter units activated by a specific stimulus.

Arabinose-induction of lac-derived promoter systems for penicillin acylase production in Escherichia coli.

Arabinose was shown to serve as an effective inducer for induction of the lac-derived promoters in Escherichia coli using penicillin acylase (PAC) as a model protein. Upon the induction with a conventional inducer, isopropyl-beta-d-thiogalactopyranoside (IPTG), for pac overexpression, which is regulated by the trc or (DE3)/T7 promoter, the production of PAC was limited by the accumulation of PAC precursors (proPAC) as inclusion bodies. Negative cellular responses, such as growth inhibition and cell lysis, were frequently observed, resulting in a low pac expression level and poor culture performance. Interestingly, these technical hurdles can be overcome simply through the use of arabinose as an inducer. The results indicate that arabinose not only induced the lac-derived promoter systems (i.e., trc and (DE3)/T7) for pac (or LL pac) overexpression but also facilitated the posttranslational processing of proPAC for maturation. However, the arabinose-inducibility appears to be host-dependent and becomes less observable in the strains with a mutation in the ara operon. The arabinose-inducibility was also investigated in the expression system with the coexistence of the trc promoter system regulating pac expression and another arabinose-inducible promoter system of araB regulating degP coexpression.

Evaluation of the performance of immobilized penicillin G acylase using active-site titration.

Penicillin G acylase from Escherichia coli was immobilized on Eupergit C with different enzyme loading. The activity of the immobilized preparations was assayed in the hydrolysis of penicillin G and was found to be much lower than would be expected on the basis of the residual enzyme activity in the immobilization supernatant. Active-site titration demonstrated that the immobilized enzyme molecules on average had turnover rates much lower than that of the dissolved enzyme. This was attributed to diffusion limitations of substrate and product inhibition. Indeed, when the immobilized preparations were crushed, the activity increased from 587 U g-1 to up to 974 U g-1. The immobilized preparations exhibited up to 15% lower turnover rates than the dissolved enzyme in cephalexin synthesis from 7-ADCA and D-(-)-phenylglycine amide. The synthesis over hydrolysis ratios of the immobilized preparations were also much lower than that of the dissolved enzyme. This was partly due to diffusion limitations but also to an intrinsic property of the immobilized enzyme because the synthesis over hydrolysis ratio of the crushed preparations was much lower than that of the dissolved enzyme.

The expression of the penicillin G amidase gene of Escherichia coli by primer extension analysis.

Escherichia coli ATCC 11105 and JM109, transformed with a multicopy plasmid carrying the penicillin G amidase (PGA) gene, were grown at 26 degrees and 37 degrees C, in the presence or the absence of phenylacetic acid (PAA) or of glucose. A method based on primer extension was developed to quantify in vivo levels of PGA mRNAs. A unique transcription start site was found to be used in all the fermentation conditions tested. This site is located 28 nucleotides upstream of the initiation codon. Its utilization is subjected to catabolic repression and is induced by PAA. This site is used at 37 degrees C, but the PGA mRNA level in E. coli ATCC 11105 is lower at 37 degrees C than at 26 degrees C. Induction of the pga gene by PAA was found to be more efficient in the producer strain. Taking into account the amount of PGA mRNA present in the cells at 37 degrees C, one would expect the production of active PGA at this temperature. This is not the case. Thus, at 37 degrees C, expression is blocked at a step after transcription.

Permeation of 6-nitro-3-phenylacetamide benzoic acid (NIPAB) and hydrolysis by penicillin acylase immobilized in emulsion liquid membranes.

The effects of various commercial and model surfactants of different structure and hydrophilicity were studied on water-in-oil (w/o) emulsion stability, potassium cation leakage and permeation of 6-nitro-3-phenylacetamide benzoic acid in a model system using Penicillin acylase (EC 3.5.1.11) immobilized in a liquid membrane. Both emulsion stability, potassium leakage and permeation of organic substances depend upon hydrophilicity of surfactants. Hydrophilic surfactants may be used to stabilize emulsions only in mixtures with hydrophobic emulsifiers. Additions of small quantities of hydrophilic surfactants to the system in which permeation occurs together within an enzymatic process may be advantageous. Both the rate of permeation and potassium transfer significantly increase when hydrophilic surfactants are present. There was no relationship observed between potassium cation transfer from the internal phase and emulsion stability in the storage test.

Thermal inactivation kinetics of penicillin G acylase obtained from a mutant derivative of Escherichia coli ATCC 11105.

Thermal inactivation kinetics of native and glutaraldehyde cross-linked forms of penicillin G acylase obtained from a mutant derivative of Escherichia coli ATCC 11105 were studied. Apparent activation energies for thermal inactivation of both native and cross-linked forms of enzyme were calculated to be [57.71 +/- 8.46] and [67.11 +/- 13.83] kcal mol-1 respectively. This slight increase in activation energy suggested that glutaraldehyde cross-linking did not markedly protect against thermal activation. Cross-linked enzyme did, however, have a significantly improved half-life at temperatures between 40 degrees C and 50 degrees C.

Chemical modification of serine at the active site of penicillin acylase from Kluyvera citrophila.

The site of reaction of penicillin acylase from Kluyvera citrophila with the potent inhibitor phenylmethanesulphonyl fluoride was investigated by incubating the inactivated enzyme with thioacetic acid to convert the side chain of the putative active-site serine residue to that of cysteine. The protein product contained one thiol group, which was reactive towards 2,2'-dipyridyl disulphide and iodoacetic acid. Carboxymethylcysteine was identified as the N-terminal residue of the beta-subunit of the carboxy[3H]methylthiol-protein. No significant changes in tertiary structure were detected in the modified penicillin acylase using near-u.v. c.d. spectroscopy. However, the catalytic activity (kcat) with either an anilide or an ester substrate was decreased in the thiol-protein by a factor of more than 10(4). A comparison of sequences of apparently related acylases shows no other extensive regions of conserved sequence containing an invariant serine residue. The side chain of this residue is proposed as a candidate nucleophile in the formation of an acyl-enzyme during catalysis.