Polysaccharide utilization loci from Bacteroidota encode CE15 enzymes with possible roles in cleaving pectin-lignin bonds.

Lignocellulose is a renewable but complex material exhibiting high recalcitrance to enzymatic hydrolysis, which is attributed, in part, to the presence of covalent linkages between lignin and polysaccharides in the plant cell wall. Glucuronoyl esterases from carbohydrate esterase family 15 (CE15) have been proposed as an aid in reducing this recalcitrance by cleaving ester bonds found between lignin and glucuronoxylan. In the Bacteroidota phylum, some species organize genes related to carbohydrate metabolism in polysaccharide utilization loci (PULs) which encode all necessary proteins to bind, deconstruct, and respond to a target glycan. Bioinformatic analyses identified CE15 members in some PULs that appear to not target the expected glucuronoxylan. Here, five CE15 members from such PULs were investigated with the aim of gaining insights on their biological roles. The selected targets were characterized using glucuronoyl esterase model substrates and with a new synthetic molecule mimicking a putative ester linkage between pectin and lignin. The CE15 enzyme from Phocaeicola vulgatus was structurally determined by X-ray crystallography both with and without carbohydrate ligands with galacturonate binding in a distinct conformation than that of glucuronate. We further explored whether these CE15 enzymes could act akin to pectin methylesterases on pectin-rich biomass but did not find evidence to support the proposed activity. Based on the evidence gathered, the CE15 enzymes in the PULs expected to degrade pectin could be involved in cleavage of uronic acid esters in rhamnogalacturonans.IMPORTANCEThe plant cell wall is a highly complex matrix, and while most of its polymers interact non-covalently, there are also covalent bonds between lignin and carbohydrates. Bonds between xylan and lignin are known, such as the glucuronoyl ester bonds that are cleavable by CE15 enzymes. Our work here indicates that enzymes from CE15 may also have other activities, as we have discovered enzymes in PULs proposed to target other polysaccharides, including pectin. Our study represents the first investigation of such enzymes. Our first hypothesis that the enzymes would act as pectin methylesterases was shown to be false, and we instead propose that they may cleave other esters on complex pectins such as rhamnogalacturonan II. The work presents both the characterization of five novel enzymes and can also provide indirect information about the components of the cell wall itself, which is a highly challenging material to chemically analyze in fine detail.

Engineering the substrate binding site of the hyperthermostable archaeal endo-ß-1,4-galactanase from Ignisphaera aggregans.

BACKGROUND: Endo-ß-1,4-galactanases are glycoside hydrolases (GH) from the GH53 family belonging to the largest clan of GHs, clan GH-A. GHs are ubiquitous and involved in a myriad of biological functions as well as being widely used industrially. Endo-ß-1,4-galactanases, in particular hydrolyse galactan and arabinogalactan in pectin, a major component of the primary plant cell wall, with important functions in plant defence and application in the food and other industries. Here, we explore the family's biological diversity by characterizing the first archaeal and hyperthermophilic GH53 galactanase, and utilize it as a scaffold for engineering enzymes with different product lengths. RESULTS: A galactanase gene was identified in the genome of the anaerobic hyperthermophilic archaeon Ignisphaera aggregans, and the isolated catalytic domain expressed and characterized (IaGal). IaGal presents the typical (ßα)8 barrel structure of clan GH-A enzymes, with catalytic carboxylates at the end of the 4th and 7th barrel strands. Its activity optimum of at least 95 °C and melting point over 100 °C indicate extreme thermostability, a very advantageous property for industrial applications. If enzyme depletion is reduced, so is the need for re-addition, and thus costs. The main stabilizing features of IaGal compared to other structurally characterized members are π-π and cation-π interactions. The length of the substrate binding site-and thus produced oligosaccharide products-is intermediate compared to previously characterized galactanases. Variants inspired by the structural diversity in the GH53 family were rationally designed to shorten or extend the substrate binding groove, in order to modulate product length. Subsite-deleted variants produced shorter products than IaGal, as do the fungal galactanases inspiring the design. IaGal variants engineered with a longer binding site produced a less expected degradation pattern, though still different from that of wild-type IaGal. All variants remained extremely stable. CONCLUSIONS: We have characterized in detail the most thermophilic endo-ß-1,4-galactanase known to date and successfully engineered it to modify the degradation profile, while maintaining much of its desirable thermostability. This is an important achievement as oligosaccharide products length is an important property for industrial and natural GHs alike.

Structure-function analyses reveal that a glucuronoyl esterase from Teredinibacter turnerae interacts with carbohydrates and aromatic compounds.

Glucuronoyl esterases (GEs) catalyze the cleavage of ester linkages found between lignin and glucuronic acid moieties on glucuronoxylan in plant biomass. As such, GEs represent promising biochemical tools in industrial processing of these recalcitrant resources. However, details on how GEs interact with their natural substrates are sparse, calling for thorough structure-function studies. Presented here is the structure and biochemical characterization of a GE, TtCE15A, from the bacterium Teredinibacter turnerae, a symbiont of wood-boring shipworms. To gain deeper insight into enzyme-substrate interactions, inhibition studies were performed with both the WT TtCE15A and variants in which we, by using site-directed mutagenesis, substituted residues suggested to have key roles in binding to or interacting with the aromatic and carbohydrate structures of its uronic acid ester substrates. Our results support the hypothesis that two aromatic residues (Phe-174 and Trp-376), conserved in bacterial GEs, interact with aromatic and carbohydrate structures of these substrates in the enzyme active site, respectively. The solved crystal structure of TtCE15A revealed features previously not observed in either fungal or bacterial GEs, with a large inserted N-terminal region neighboring the active site and a differently positioned residue of the catalytic triad. The findings highlight key interactions between GEs and complex lignin-carbohydrate ester substrates and advance our understanding of the substrate specificities of these enzymes in biomass conversion.

Biochemical and structural features of diverse bacterial glucuronoyl esterases facilitating recalcitrant biomass conversion.

BACKGROUND: Lignocellulose is highly recalcitrant to enzymatic deconstruction, where the recalcitrance primarily results from chemical linkages between lignin and carbohydrates. Glucuronoyl esterases (GEs) from carbohydrate esterase family 15 (CE15) have been suggested to play key roles in reducing lignocellulose recalcitrance by cleaving covalent ester bonds found between lignin and glucuronoxylan. However, only a limited number of GEs have been biochemically characterized and structurally determined to date, limiting our understanding of these enzymes and their potential exploration. RESULTS: Ten CE15 enzymes from three bacterial species, sharing as little as 20% sequence identity, were characterized on a range of model substrates; two protein structures were solved, and insights into their regulation and biological roles were gained through gene expression analysis and enzymatic assays on complex biomass. Several enzymes with higher catalytic efficiencies on a wider range of model substrates than previously characterized fungal GEs were identified. Similarities and differences regarding substrate specificity between the investigated GEs were observed and putatively linked to their positioning in the CE15 phylogenetic tree. The bacterial GEs were able to utilize substrates lacking 4-OH methyl substitutions, known to be important for fungal enzymes. In addition, certain bacterial GEs were able to efficiently cleave esters of galacturonate, a functionality not previously described within the family. The two solved structures revealed similar overall folds to known structures, but also indicated active site regions allowing for more promiscuous substrate specificities. The gene expression analysis demonstrated that bacterial GE-encoding genes were differentially expressed as response to different carbon sources. Further, improved enzymatic saccharification of milled corn cob by a commercial lignocellulolytic enzyme cocktail when supplemented with GEs showcased their synergistic potential with other enzyme types on native biomass. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial GEs exhibit much larger diversity than fungal counterparts. In this study, we significantly expanded the existing knowledge on CE15 with the in-depth characterization of ten bacterial GEs broadly spanning the phylogenetic tree, and also presented two novel enzyme structures. Variations in transcriptional responses of CE15-encoding genes under different growth conditions suggest nonredundant functions for enzymes found in species with multiple CE15 genes and further illuminate the importance of GEs in native lignin-carbohydrate disassembly.

Learning from oligosaccharide soaks of crystals of an AA13 lytic polysaccharide monooxygenase: crystal packing, ligand binding and active-site disorder.

Lytic polysaccharide monooxygenases (LPMOs) are a class of copper-dependent enzymes discovered within the last ten years. They oxidatively cleave polysaccharides (chitin, lignocellulose, hemicellulose and starch-derived), presumably making recalcitrant substrates accessible to glycoside hydrolases. Recently, the first crystal structure of an LPMO-substrate complex was reported, giving insights into the interaction of LPMOs with ß-linked substrates (Frandsen et al., 2016). The LPMOs acting on α-linked glycosidic bonds (family AA13) display binding surfaces that are quite different from those of LPMOs that act on ß-linked glycosidic bonds (families AA9-AA11), as revealed from the first determined structure (Lo Leggio et al., 2015), and thus presumably the AA13s interact with their substrate in a distinct fashion. Here, several new structures of the same AA13 enzyme, Aspergillus oryzae AA13, are presented. Crystals obtained in the presence of high zinc-ion concentrations were used, as they can be obtained more reproducibly than those used to refine the deposited copper-containing structure. One structure with an ordered zinc-bound active site was solved at 1.65 Šresolution, and three structures from crystals soaked with maltooligosaccharides in solutions devoid of zinc ions were solved at resolutions of up to 1.10 Å. Despite similar unit-cell parameters, small rearrangements in the crystal packing occur when the crystals are depleted of zinc ions, resulting in a more occluded substrate-binding surface. In two of the three structures maltooligosaccharide ligands are bound, but not at the active site. Two of the structures presented show a His-ligand conformation that is incompatible with metal-ion binding. In one of these structures this conformation is the principal one (80% occupancy), giving a rare atomic resolution view of a substantially misfolded enzyme that is presumably rendered inactive.

A fluorescence study of isofagomine protonation in ß-glucosidase.

N-(10-Chloro-9-anthracenemethyl)isofagomine 5 and N-(10-chloro-9-anthracenemethyl)-1-deoxynojirimycin 6 were prepared, and their inhibition of almond ß-glucosidase was measured. The isofagomine derivative 5 was found to be a potent inhibitor, while the 1-deoxynojirimycin derivative 6 displayed no inhibition at the concentrations investigated. Fluorescence spectroscopy of 5 with almond ß-glucosidase at different pH values showed that the inhibitor nitrogen is not protonated when bound to the enzyme. Analysis of pH inhibition data confirmed that 5 binds as the amine to the enzyme's unprotonated dicarboxylate form. This is a radically different binding mode than has been observed with isofagomine and other iminosugars in the literature.

Adenine phosphoribosyltransferase from Sulfolobus solfataricus is an enzyme with unusual kinetic properties and a crystal structure that suggests it evolved from a 6-oxopurine phosphoribosyltransferase.

The adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRTase) encoded by the open reading frame SSO2342 of Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 was subjected to crystallographic, kinetic, and ligand binding analyses. The enzyme forms dimers in solution and in the crystals, and binds one molecule of the reactants 5-phosphoribosyl-α-1-pyrophosphate (PRPP) and adenine or the product adenosine monophosphate (AMP) or the inhibitor adenosine diphosphate (ADP) in each active site. The individual subunit adopts an overall structure that resembles a 6-oxopurine phosphoribosyltransferase (PRTase) more than known APRTases implying that APRT functionality in Crenarchaeotae has its evolutionary origin in this family of PRTases. Only the N-terminal two-thirds of the polypeptide chain folds as a traditional type I PRTase with a five-stranded ß-sheet surrounded by helices. The C-terminal third adopts an unusual three-helix bundle structure that together with the nucleobase-binding loop undergoes a conformational change upon binding of adenine and phosphate resulting in a slight contraction of the active site. The inhibitor ADP binds like the product AMP with both the α- and ß-phosphates occupying the 5'-phosphoribosyl binding site. The enzyme shows activity over a wide pH range, and the kinetic and ligand binding properties depend on both pH and the presence/absence of phosphate in the buffers. A slow hydrolysis of PRPP to ribose 5-phosphate and pyrophosphate, catalyzed by the enzyme, may be facilitated by elements in the C-terminal three-helix bundle part of the protein.

From screen to structure with a harvestable microfluidic device.

Advances in automation have facilitated the widespread adoption of high-throughput vapour-diffusion methods for initial crystallization screening. However, for many proteins, screening thousands of crystallization conditions fails to yield crystals of sufficient quality for structural characterization. Here, the rates of crystal identification for thaumatin, catalase and myoglobin using microfluidic Crystal Former devices and sitting-drop vapour-diffusion plates are compared. It is shown that the Crystal Former results in a greater number of identified initial crystallization conditions compared with vapour diffusion. Furthermore, crystals of thaumatin and lysozyme obtained in the Crystal Former were used directly for structure determination both in situ and upon harvesting and cryocooling. On the basis of these results, a crystallization strategy is proposed that uses multiple methods with distinct kinetic trajectories through the protein phase diagram to increase the output of crystallization pipelines.

Impact of the physical and chemical environment on the molecular structure of Coprinus cinereus peroxidase.

The structure of the peroxidase from Coprinus cinereus (CiP) has been determined in three different space groups and crystalline environments. Two of these are of the recombinant glycosylated form (rCiP), which crystallized in space groups P2(1)2(1)2(1) and C2. The third crystal form was obtained from a variant of CiP in which the glycosylation sites have been removed (rCiPON). It crystallizes in space group P2(1) with beta approximately 90 degrees; the structure was determined from room-temperature data and low-temperature data obtained from twinned crystals. Two independent molecules of CiP related by non-crystallographic symmetry are contained in the three crystal forms. The packing in the two structures of the glycosylated form of rCiP is closely related, but differs from the packing in the unglycosylated rCiPON. A database search based on small-molecule porphinato iron (III) complexes has been performed and related to observations of the spin states and coordination numbers of the iron ion. The room-temperature structures of CiP and one structure of the almost identical peroxidase from Arthromyces ramosus (ARP) have been used to identify 66 conserved water molecules and to assign a structural role to most of them.

The structure of a mutant enzyme of Coprinus cinereus peroxidase provides an understanding of its increased thermostability.

Seven amino-acid substitutions introduced into the 343 amino-acid-long sequence of Coprinus cinereus peroxidase (CiP) led to a mutant enzyme (TS-rCiP) which is more stable than the native enzyme at higher temperature, pH and hydrogen peroxide concentrations. It is therefore more suitable for industrial applications. A structure determination was conducted on a deglycosylated but still active form of TS-rCiP based on X-ray diffraction data to 2.05 A resolution measured on a crystal cooled to 100 K and refined to R = 0.202 and R(free) = 0.249. The increased stability of the TS-rCiP enzyme can be understood from the structural changes of the TS-rCiP structure revealed by a comparative analysis with other known CiP structures. One of the more significant changes caused by three of the substitutions, I49S, V53A and T121A, is the conversion of a hydrophobic pocket into a hydrophilic pocket with associated changes in the water structure and the hydrogen-bonding interactions. The E239G substitution, which gives rise to increased thermostability at high pH, creates changes in the water structure and in the orientation of a phenylalanine (Phe236) in its vicinity. The three substitutions M166F, M242 and Y242F introduced to increase the oxidative stability do not introduce any structural changes.

Substrate binding induces domain movements in orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase.

Orotidine 5'-monophosphate decarboxylase (ODCase) catalyses the decarboxylation of orotidine 5'-monophosphate to uridine 5'-monophosphate (UMP). We have earlier determined the structure of ODCase from Escherichia coli complexed with the inhibitor 1-(5'-phospho-beta-d-ribofuranosyl)barbituric acid (BMP); here we present the 2.5 A structure of the uncomplexed apo enzyme, determined from twinned crystals. A structural analysis and comparison of the two structures of the E. coli enzyme show that binding of the inhibitor is accompanied by significant domain movements of approximately 12 degrees around a hinge that crosses the active site. Hence, the ODCase dimer, which contains two active sites, may be divided in three domains: a central domain that is fixed, and two lids which independently move 12 degrees upon binding. Corresponding analyses, presented herein, of the two Saccharomyces cerevisiae ODCase structures (with and without BMP) and the Methanobacterium thermoautotrophicum ODCase structures (with and without 6-aza UMP) show very similar, but somewhat smaller domain movements. The domain movements seem to be initiated by the phosphoryl binding to the enzyme and can explain why the binding of the phosphoryl group is essential for the catalytic function.