A glimpse into the specialization history of the lipases/acyltransferases family of CpLIP2.

Lipases/acyltransferases homologous to CpLIP2 from Candida parapsilosis belong to the α/β hydrolase superfamily as lipase A from Moesziomyces antarcticus (Candida antarctica), and constitute a consistent phylogenetic subgroup with at least 56% identity. Lipases/acyltransferases share the phenotypic characteristic of a high acyltransfer activity even in aqueous media with very high water thermodynamic activity. Previous mutagenesis and evolution strategies have given insights into the role of key residues and protein subdomains in the reaction and substrate specificities of these enzymes.

High-cell-density cultivation of recombinant Escherichia coli, purification and characterization of a self-sufficient biosynthetic octane ω-hydroxylase.

We have recently described the biocatalytic characterization of a self-sufficent biosynthetic alkane hydroxylase based on CYP153A13a from Alcanivorax borkumensis SK2 (thereafter A13-Red). Despite remarkable regio- and chemo-selectivity, A13-Red suffers of a difficult-to-reproduce expression and moderate operational stability. In this study, we focused our efforts on the production of A13-Red using high-cell-density cultivation (HCDC) of recombinant Escherichia coli.

Catalytic, mild, and selective oxyfunctionalization of linear alkanes: current challenges.

Selective catalysts for sustainable oxidation of alkanes are highly demanded because of the abundance of these molecules in the environment, the possibility to transform them into higher-value compounds, such as chemicals or synthetic fuels, and the fact that, kinetically speaking, this is a difficult reaction. Numerous chemical and biological catalysts have been developed in the lasts decades for this purpose, rendering the overview over this field of chemistry difficult. After giving a definition of the ideal catalyst for alkane oxyfunctionalization, this review aims to present the catalysts available today that are closest to ideal.

Phospholipid-templated silica nanocapsules as efficient polyenzymatic biocatalysts.

Solid polyenzymatic biocatalysts have been designed by combining two immobilized enzymes, the first one allowing the in situ generation of H(2)O(2) from air and the second one performing an oxidation reaction. The in situ H(2)O(2) generation system is based on the reaction of glucose with air using a glucose oxidase (GOx). The optimization of the encapsulation of GOx into phospholipids-templated silica capsules (NPS) was performed.

Catalase-like activity of bovine met-hemoglobin: interaction with the pseudo-catalytic peroxidation of anthracene traces in aqueous medium.

Hemoglobin is a member of the hemoprotein superfamily whose main role is to transport O(2) in vertebrate organisms. It has two known promiscuous enzymatic activities, peroxidase and oxygenase. Here we show for the first time that bovine hemoglobin also presents a catalase-like activity characterized by a V(max )of 344 microM/min, a K(M )of 24 mM and a k(cat) equal to 115/min.

Engineering of glucoside acceptors for the regioselective synthesis of beta-(1-->3)-disaccharides with glycosynthases.

Glycosynthase mutants obtained from Thermotogamaritima were able to catalyze the regioselective synthesis of aryl beta-D-Galp-(1-->3)-beta-D-Glcp and aryl beta-D-Glcp-(1-->3)-beta-D-Glcp in high yields (up to 90 %) using aryl beta-D-glucosides as acceptors. The need for an aglyconic aryl group was rationalized by molecular modeling calculations, which have emphasized a high stabilizing interaction of this group by stacking with W312 of the enzyme. Unfortunately, the deprotection of the aromatic group of the disaccharides was not possible without partial hydrolysis of the glycosidic bond.

Improved PCR method for the creation of saturation mutagenesis libraries in directed evolution: application to difficult-to-amplify templates.

Saturation mutagenesis constitutes a powerful method in the directed evolution of enzymes. Traditional protocols of whole plasmid amplification such as Stratagene's QuikChange sometimes fail when the templates are difficult to amplify. In order to overcome such restrictions, we have devised a simple two-primer, two-stage polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method which constitutes an improvement over existing protocols.

Directed evolution of the alpha-L-fucosidase from Thermotoga maritima into an alpha-L-transfucosidase.

The alpha-L-fucosidase from Thermotoga maritima (Tm alpha fuc) was converted into alpha-L-transfucosidase variants by directed evolution. The wild-type enzyme catalyzes oligosaccharide synthesis by transfer of a fucosyl residue from a pNP-fucoside donor to pNP-fucoside (self-condensation) with alpha-(1-->3) regioselectivity or pNP-galactoside (transglycosylation) with alpha-(1-->2) regioselectivity at low yields (7%). The wild-type enzyme was submitted to one cycle of mutagenesis, followed by rational recombination of the selected mutations, which allowed identification of variants with improved transferase activity.

In vivo selection for the enhancement of Thermotoga maritima exopolygalacturonase activity at neutral pH and low temperature.

The aim of this study was to develop an Escherichia coli-based metabolic selection system for the uncovering of new oligogalacturonate-active enzymes. Based on the expression of the specific permease TogMNAB, this system enabled the entry of oligogalacturonates into the cytoplasm of E. coli thus providing a modified strain usable for this purpose.

Converting a {beta}-glycosidase into a {beta}-transglycosidase by directed evolution.

Directed evolution was applied to the beta-glycosidase of Thermus thermophilus in order to increase its ability to synthesize oligosaccharide by transglycosylation. Wild-type enzyme was able to transfer the glycosyl residue with a yield of 50% by self-condensation and of about 8% by transglycosylation on disaccharides without nitrophenyl at their reducing end. By using a simple screening procedure, we could produce mutant enzymes possessing a high transferase activity.