In vitro and in vivo safety evaluation of Nephure™.

Nephure™ is a proprietary oxalate decarboxylase (OxDC) enzyme being developed as a food ingredient. In this study, the safety of Nephure™ was evaluated in a bacterial mutagenicity assay and in a sub-chronic (13-week) oral toxicity study in rats. Nephure™ did not show any mutagenic properties in the mutagenicity assay.

Crystallographic Investigation of Imidazolium Ionic Liquid Effects on Enzyme Structure.

We present the first crystallographic insight into the interactions of an ionic liquid (IL) with an enzyme, which has widespread implications for stabilizing enzymes in IL media for biocatalysis. Structures of Bacillus subtilis lipase A (lipA) and an IL-stable variant (QM-lipA) were obtained in the presence of increasing concentrations of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM][Cl]). These studies revealed that the [BMIM] cation interacts with surface residues through hydrophobic and cation-π interactions.

Molecular dynamics investigation of the ionic liquid/enzyme interface: application to engineering enzyme surface charge.

Molecular simulations of the enzymes Candida rugosa lipase and Bos taurus α-chymotrypsin in aqueous ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium ethyl sulfate were used to study the change in enzyme-solvent interactions induced by modification of the enzyme surface charge. The enzymes were altered by randomly mutating lysine surface residues to glutamate, effectively decreasing the net surface charge by two for each mutation. These mutations resemble succinylation of the enzyme by chemical modification, which has been shown to enhance the stability of both enzymes in ILs.

Charge engineering of cellulases improves ionic liquid tolerance and reduces lignin inhibition.

We report a novel approach to concurrently improve the tolerance to ionic liquids (ILs) as well as reduce lignin inhibition of Trichoderma reesei cellulase via engineering enzyme charge. Succinylation of the cellulase enzymes led to a nearly twofold enhancement in cellulose conversion in 15% (v/v) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM][Cl]). The improvement in activity upon succinylation correlated with the apparent preferential exclusion of the [Cl] anion in fluorescence quenching assays.

Mediating electrostatic binding of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride to enzyme surfaces improves conformational stability.

We have recently developed a general approach to improve the utility of enzymes in ionic liquids (ILs) via tuning of the ratio of enzyme-containing positive to negative surface charges. In this work, the impact of enzyme surface charge ratio on the biophysical interaction of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([BMIM][Cl]) with chymotrypsin and lipase was investigated to understand this approach at the molecular level. Results of fluorescence quenching assays indicated that the extent of binding of the [BMIM] cation decreased (7- and 3.

Accelerated protein engineering for chemical biotechnology via homologous recombination.

Protein engineering has traditionally relied on random mutagenesis strategies to generate diverse libraries, which require high-throughput screening or selection methods to identify rare variants. Alternatively, approaches to semi-rational library construction can be used to minimize the screening load and enhance the efficiency by which improved mutants may be identified. Such methods are typically limited to characterization of relatively few variants due to the difficulties in generating large rational libraries.

Stabilization of enzymes in ionic liquids via modification of enzyme charge.

Due to the propensity of ionic liquids (ILs) to inactivate enzymes, the development of strategies to improve enzyme utility in these solvents is critical to fully exploit ILs for biocatalysis. We have developed a strategy to broadly improve enzyme utility in ILs based on elucidating the effect of charge modifications on the function of enzymes in IL environments. Results of stability studies in aqueous-IL mixtures indicated a clear connection between the ratio of enzyme-containing positive-to-negative sites and enzyme stability in ILs.