Stabilization of semi-solid-state starch by branching enzyme-assisted chain-transfer catalysis at extreme substrate concentration

In this study a branching enzyme (BE, α-1,4 → α-1,6 glycosyltransferase) was used to modify starch granules of different structures at high temperature and at extreme starch dry matter content (30–40%, w/v) to restrict temperature-induced swelling. As opposed to diluted systems, such conditions led to stabilization of the granular structure for low-phosphate starch types at the highest BE activity. Bright field/polarized light and scanning electron microscopy confirmed maintenance of granular structure. The product compared to the control had significantly increased degree of branching as identified by shorter branch-length of the α-1,4 chains assessed by chromatography and larger proportion of α-1,6 links to α-1,4 links as assessed by ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Size exclusion chromatography demonstrated the presence of uniform molecules with smaller size. Further the polysaccharide product was 40% more soluble at 25 °C than the corresponding heat treated control. Both of these observations were supported by ¹³C solid-state MAS NMR. Hence, significant chain transfer took place in the semi-solid state starch permitting conservation of the main granular organization in the final product. A hypothetic model is presented to account for the observed phenomenon.     

Identification of a novel cellulose-binding domain within the endo-β-1,4-xylanase KRICT PX-3 from Paenibacillus terrae HPL-003

The model 3-D structure of xylanase KRICT PX3 (JF320814) identified by DNA sequence analysis revealed a catalytic domain and CBM4-9 which functions as a xylan binding domain (XBD). To identify its role in xylan hydrolysis, six expression plasmids were constructed encoding the N-terminal CBM plus the catalytic domain or different glycosyl hydrolases, and the biochemical properties of the recombinant enzymes were compared to the original structure of PX3 xylanase. All six of the recombinant xylanases with the addition of CBM in the pIVEX-GST expression vector showed no improved PX3 hydrolytic activity. However, the absence of the CBM domain resulted in a decrement of 40% in thermostability, movement of the optimal temperature from 55 °C to 45 °C, alteration of the optimal pH range from 5⿿10 to 6⿿8, and reduction of the enzymatic activity to one-second under the same condition, respectively. The putative XBD in PX3 comprises a new N-terminal domain homologous to the catalytic thermostabilizing domains from other xylanases. Analysis of the main products released from xylan indicate that the recombinant enzymes act as endo-1,4-β-xylanases but differ in their hydrolysis of xylan from beech wood, birch wood, and oat spelt.     

Amylolytically-resistant tapioca starch modified by combined treatment of branching enzyme and maltogenic amylase

Tapioca starch was modified using branching enzyme (BE) isolated from Bacillus subtilis 168 and Bacillus stearothermophilus maltogenic amylase (BSMA), and their molecular fine structure and susceptibility to amylolytic enzymes were investigated. By BE treatment, the molecular weight decreased from 3.1 × 10⁸ to 1.7 × 10⁶, the number of shorter branch chains (DP 6–12) increased, the number of longer branch chains (DP >25) decreased, and amylose content decreased from 18.9% to 0.75%. This indicated that α–1,4 linkages of amylose and amylopectin were cleaved, and moiety of glycosyl residues were transferred to another amylose and amylopectin to produce branched glucan and BE-treated tapioca starch by forming α–1,6 branch linkages. The product was further modified with BSMA to produce highly-branched tapioca starch with 9.7% of extra branch points. When subject to digestion with human pancreatic α-amylase (HPA), porcine pancreatic α-amylase (PPA) and glucoamylase, highly-branched tapioca starch gave significantly lowered α-amylase susceptibility (7.5 times, 14.4 times and 3.9 times, respectively), compared to native tapioca starch.     

Genome mining and motif truncation of glycoside hydrolase family 5 endo-β-1,4-mannanase encoded by Aspergillus oryzae RIB40 for potential konjac flour hydrolysis or feed additive

Two novel glycosyl hydrolase family 5 (GH5) β-mannanases (AoMan5A and AoMan5B) were identified from Aspergillus oryzae RIB40 by genome mining. The AoMan5A contains a predicted family 1 carbohydrate binding module (CBM-1), located at its N-terminal. The AoMan5A, AoMan5 B and truncated mutant AoMan5AΔCL (truncating the N-terminal CBM and linker of AoMan5A) were expressed retaining the N-terminus of the native protein in Pichia pastoris GS115 by pPIC9 K^M. The specific enzyme activity of the purified reAoMan5A, reAoMan5 B and reAoMan5AΔCL towards locust bean gum at pH 3.6 and 40 °C for 10 min, was 8.3, 104.2 and 15.8 U/mg, respectively. The temperature properties of the reAoMan5AΔCL were improved by truncating CBM. They can degrade the pretreated konjac flour and produce prebiotics. In addition, they had excellent stability under simulative gastric fluid and simulative prilling process. All these properties make these recombinant β-mannanases potential additives for use in the food and feed industries.     

Biochemical characterization,cloning and molecular modeling of a detergent and organic solvent-stable family 11 xylanase from the newly isolated Aspergillus niger US368 strain

New β-1,4-d-xylan xylanohydrolase (XAn11) belonging to the xylanase 11 family was purified to homogeneity from a newly soil-isolated Aspergillus niger US368 strain. The pure xylanase is a glycosylated monomer having a molecular mass of about 26 kDa. The N-terminal sequence of the purified enzyme was determined and compared to some Aspergillus xylanases N-terminal ones. The gene encoding the XAn11 was cloned and sequenced.The maximal xylanase activity was obtained at pH 5.0 and 55 °C. The XAn11 was found to be stable in a wide range of pH (3–9) and in presence of some detergents and organic solvents. A specific activity of about 805.6 U/mg or 334 U/mg was measured using birchwood xylan or oatspelt xylan as substrate, respectively. A structural explanation of the difference between experimental and theoretical molecular mass as well as the stability of the enzyme against acidic pH was proposed by molecular modeling.     

Unwrapping the hydrolytic system of the phytopathogenic fungus Phoma exigua by secretome analysis

The present work describes the secretome profiling of a phytopathogenic fungus, Phoma exigua by liquid chromatography coupled tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) based proteomics approach to highlight the suites of enzymes responsible for biomass hydrolysis. Mass spectrometry identified 33 proteins in the Phoma secretome when grown on α-cellulose as the sole carbon source. The functional classification revealed a unique extracellular enzyme system mainly belonging to the family of glycosyl hydrolase proteins (52%). This hydrolytic system consisted of cellulases (endo-1,4-β-glucanase, cellobiohydrolase I, exoglucanase, and β-glucosidase), hemicellulases (1,4-β-xylosidase and endo-1,4-β-xylanase) and other hypothetical proteins including GH3, GH5, GH6, GH7, GH11, GH20, GH32 and GH54. The synergistic action of this enzyme cocktail was assessed by the saccharification of alkali treated wheat straw. Since the Phoma secretome has limited β-glucosidase activity, it was supplemented with commercial β-glucosidase. After supplementation, this enzyme complex resulted in high yields of glucose (177.2 ± 1.0 mg/gds), xylose (209.2 ± 1.5 mg/gds) and arabinose (25.2 ± 0.3 mg/gds). The secretome analysis and biomass hydrolysis by P. exigua revealed its unique potential as a source of hydrolytic enzymes for lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysis.     

Transformation of maltose into prebiotic isomaltooligosaccharides by a novel α-glucosidase from Xantophyllomyces dendrorhous

The transglycosylation activity of a novel α-glucosidase from the basidiomycetous yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous (formerly Phaffia rhodozyma) was studied using maltose as glucosyl donor. The enzyme synthesized oligosaccharides with α-(1 → 2), α-(1 → 4) and α-(1 → 6) bonds. Using 200 g/l maltose, the yield of oligosaccharides was 53.8 g/l, with prebiotic oligosaccharides containing at least one α-(1 → 6) linkage (panose, 6-O-α-glucosyl-maltotriose and 6-O-α-isomaltosyl-maltose) being the major products (47.1 g/l). The transglycosylatying yield was 3.6 times higher than the observed with the α-glucosidase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (53.8 vs. 14.7 g/l). Moreover, when increasing the maltose concentration up to 525 g/l, the maximum production of tri- and tetrasaccharides reached 167.1 g/l, without altering the percentage of oligosaccharides in the mixture. Compared with other microbial α-glucosidases in which the main transglycosylation product is a disaccharide, the enzyme from X. dendrorhous yields a final product enriched in trisaccharides and tetrasaccharides.     

Cloning,purification and biochemical characterisation of an organic solvent-, detergent-, and thermo-stable amylopullulanase from Thermococcus kodakarensis KOD1

Thermostable amylopullulanases can catalyse the hydrolysis of both α-1,4 and α-1,6 glucosidic bonds and are of considerable interest in the starch saccharification industry. In this study, the gene Apu-Tk encoding an extracellular amylopullulanase was cloned from an extremely thermophilic anaerobic archaeon Thermococcus kodakarensis KOD1. Apu-Tk encodes an 1100-amino acid protein with a 27-residue signal peptide, which has a predicted mass of 125 kDa after signal peptide cleavage. Sequence alignments showed that Apu-Tk contains the five regions conserved in all GH57 family proteins. Full-length Apu-Tk was expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. The purified enzyme displayed both pullulanase and amylase activity. The optimal temperature for Apu-Tk to hydrolyse pullulan and soluble starch was >100 °C. Apu-Tk was also active at a broad range of pH (4–7), with an optimum pH of ~5.0–5.5. Apu-Tk also retained >30% of its original activity and partially folded globular structure in the presence of 8% SDS or 10% β-mercaptoethanol. The high yield, broad pH range, and stability of Apu-Tk implicate it as a potential enzyme for industrial applications.     

Immobilisation of CGTase for continuous production of long-carbohydrate-chain alkyl glycosides: Control of product distribution by flow rate adjustment

Bacillus macerans cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) (EC 2.4.1.19) was covalently immobilised on Eupergit C and used in a packed-bed reactor to investigate the continuous production of long-carbohydrate-chain alkyl glycosides from α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) and n-dodecyl-(1,4)-β-maltopyranoside (C₁₂G₂β). The effects of buffer ion strength and pH, and enzyme loading on the immobilisation yield and the enzyme activity were evaluated. Approximately 98% of the protein and 33% of the total activity were immobilised. At pH 5.15, the enzymatic half-life was 132 min at 60 °C and 18 min at 70 °C. The immobilised enzyme maintained 60% of its initial activity after 28 days storage at 4 °C. The degree of conversion was controlled by simple regulation of the flow rate through the reactor, making it possible to optimise the product distribution. It was possible to achieve a yield of the primary coupling product n-dodecyl-(1,4)-β-maltooctaoside (C₁₂G₈β) of about 50%, with a ratio between the primary and the secondary coupling product of about 10. Thermoanaerobacter sp. CGTase (Toruzyme 3.0 L) immobilised on Eupergit C had good operational stability at 60 and 70 °C thus showing the advantages of using more thermostable enzymes in biocatalysis. However, this enzyme was unsuitable for the production of C₁₂G₈β due to extensive disproportionation reactions, giving a broad product range.     

Glucoamylase production by the marine yeast Aureobasidium pullulans N13d and hydrolysis of potato starch granules by the enzyme

Under the optimal conditions, 10 U/ml of glucoamylase was produced by the marine yeast Aureobasidium pullulans N13d. It was noticed that the crude glucoamylase actively hydrolyzed potato starch granules, but poorly digested raw corn starch and sweet potato starch, resulting in conversion of 68.5, 19 and 22% of them into glucose within 6 h of incubation in the presence of 40 g/l of potato starch granules and 20 U/ml of the crude enzyme. When potato starch granules concentration was increased from 10 to 80 g/l, hydrolysis extent was decreased from 85.6 to 60%, while potato starch granules concentration was increased from 80 to 360 g/l, hydrolysis extent was decreased from 60 to 56%. Ratio of hydrolysis extent of potato starch granules to hydrolysis extent of gelatinized potato starch was 86.0% and the hydrolysis extent of potato starch granules by action of the crude glucoamylase (1.0 U/ml) was 18.5% within 30 min at 60 °C. Only glucose was detected during the hydrolysis, indicating that the crude enzyme could hydrolyze both α-1,4 and α-1,6 linkages of starch molecule in the potato starch.     

Biochemical characterization of a lichenase from Penicillium occitanis Pol6 and its potential application in the brewing industry

The purification and characterization of an extracellular lichenase from the fungus Penicillium occitanis Pol6 were studied. The strain produced the maximum level of extracellular lichenase (45 ± 5 U ml⁻¹) when grown in a medium containing oat flour (2%, w/v) at 30 °C for 7 days. The purified enzyme EG_L showed as a single protein band on SDS–PAGE with a molecular mass of 20 kDa. Its N-terminal sequence of 10 amino acid residues was determined as LDNGAPLLNV. The purified enzyme showed an optimum activity at pH 3.0 and 50–60 °C. The half-lives of EG_L at 60 °C and 70 °C were 80 min and 21 min, respectively. Substrate specificity studies revealed that the enzyme is a true β-1,3-1,4-d-glucanase. The enzyme hydrolyzed lichenan to yield trisaccharide, and tetrasaccharide as the main products. Under simulated mashing conditions, addition of EG_L (20 U/ml) or a commercial β-glucanase (20 U/ml) reduced the filtration time (25% and 21.3%, respectively) and viscosity (10% and 8.18%, respectively). These characteristics indicate that EG_L is a good candidate in the malting and brewing industry.     

Advanced water splitting for green hydrogen gas production through complete oxidation of starch by in vitro metabolic engineering

Starch is a natural energy storage compound and is hypothesized to be a high-energy density chemical compound or solar fuel. In contrast to industrial hydrolysis of starch to glucose, an alternative ATP-free phosphorylation of starch was designed to generate cost-effective glucose 6-phosphate by using five thermophilic enzymes (i.e., isoamylase, alpha-glucan phosphorylase, 4-α-glucanotransferase, phosphoglucomutase, and polyphosphate glucokinase). This enzymatic phosphorolysis is energetically advantageous because the energy of α-1,4-glycosidic bonds among anhydroglucose units is conserved in the form of phosphorylated glucose. Furthermore, we demonstrated an in vitro 17-thermophilic enzyme pathway that can convert all glucose units of starch, regardless of branched and linear contents, with water to hydrogen at a theoretic yield (i.e., 12 H₂ per glucose), three times of the theoretical yield from dark microbial fermentation. The use of a biomimetic electron transport chain enabled to achieve a maximum volumetric productivity of 90.2 mmol of H₂/L/h at 20 g/L starch. The complete oxidation of starch to hydrogen by this in vitro synthetic (enzymatic) biosystem suggests that starch as a natural solar fuel becomes a high-density hydrogen storage compound with a gravimetric density of more than 14% H₂-based mass and an electricity density of more than 3000 W h/kg of starch.     

Purification and characterization of cyclodextrinase from Paenibacillus sp. A11

Paenibacillus sp. A11 produced an intracellular cyclodextrinase (CDase), its presence was confirmed by activity detection on an agar plate with specific screening medium containing β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and phenolphthalein. The CDase was purified up to 22-fold with a 28% yield. The enzyme was a single polypeptide with a molecular weight of 80 kDa. Optimum activity was at pH 7.0 and 40 °C. The enzyme had an isoelectric point of 5.4 and N-terminal sequence was M F L E A V Y H R P R K N W S. When relative hydrolytic activities of the CDase on different substrates were compared, it was found that high specificity was exerted by β-CD while maltoheptaose, its linear counterpart, was only 40% as active. The enzyme recognized α-1,4-glucose units and the hydrolysis depended on the size of oligosaccharides. Highly branched carbohydrates such as glycogen or dextran or other heteropolymers as glucomannan could not be hydrolyzed. This enzyme was different from other CDases in its ability to hydrolyze maltose and trehalose, though with very low hydrolytic activity. The major product from all substrates was maltose. The k_cat/K_m value for β-CD was 8.28 × 10⁵ M⁻¹min⁻¹. The enzyme activity was completely inactivated by 1 mM N-bromosuccinimide and diethylpyrocarbonate suggesting the crucial importance of Trp and His for its catalytic activity. Essential Trp was confirmed to be at enzyme active site by substrate protection experiment. Partial inactivation by 5 mM phenylglyoxal suggests the involvement of Arg, which has never been reported in other CDases.     

Applications of a high maltose forming,thermo-stable α-amylase from an extremely alkalophilic Bacillus licheniformis strain AS08E in food and laundry detergent industries

An alkalophilic bacterial strain was isolated from the soil sample of Assam, North-East India. This strain was found capable of growing and producing α-amylase at extremely alkaline pH (12.5). By molecular characterization, this bacterium was identified as Bacillus licheniformis strain AS08E. Statistical optimization of media components resulted in 3-fold increase in the production of α-amylase from this bacterium. From this strain, a major extracellular α-amylase of ∼55 kDa was purified to homogeneity with a 14.5-fold increase in its specific activity. The N-terminal sequence of this enzyme showed extensive identity with α-amylases purified from thermostable bacteria. The purified enzyme showed optimum activity at pH 10.0 and 80 °C, and demonstrated stability toward various surfactants, organic solvents, and commercial laundry detergents. The spectroflurometric analysis suggests that the enzyme has a strong binding affinity toward soluble starch. TLC analysis of starch degradation product displays this α-amylase as a high maltose-forming enzyme. The future application of this enzyme in food and detergent industries is highly promising.     

Domain evolution in the GH13 pullulanase subfamily with focus on the carbohydrate-binding module family 48

Glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 13 comprises about 30 different specificities. Four of them have been proposed to form the GH13 pullulanase subfamily: pullulanase, isoamylase, maltooligosyl trehalohydrolase and branching enzyme forming the seven CAZy GH13 subfamilies: GH13 8-GH13 14. Recently, a new family of carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs), the family CBM48 has been established containing the putative starch-binding domains from the pullulanase subfamily, the β-subunit of AMP-activated protein kinase and some other GH13 enzymes with pullulanase and/or α-amylase-pullulanase specificity. Since all of these enzymes are multidomain proteins and the structure for at least one representative of each enzyme specificity has already been determined, the main goal of the present study was to elucidate domain evolution within this GH13 pullulanase subfamily (84 real enzymes) focusing on the CBM48 module. With regard to CBM48 positioning in the amino acid sequence, the N-terminal end of a protein appears to be a predominant position. This is especially true for isoamylases and maltooligosyl trehalohydrolases. Secondary structure-based alignment of CBM modules from CBM48, CBM20 and CBM21 revealed that several residues known as consensus for CBM20 and CBM21 could also be identified in CBM48, but only branching enzymes possess the aromatic residues that correspond with the two tryptophans forming the evolutionary conserved starch-binding site 1 in CBM20. The evolutionary trees constructed for the individual domains, complete alignment, and the conserved sequence regions of the α-amylase family were found to be comparable to each other (except for the C-domain tree) with two basic parts: (i) branching enzymes and maltooligosyl trehalohydrolases; and (ii) pullulanases and isoamylases. Taxonomy was respected only within clusters with pure specificity, i.e. the evolution of CBM48 reflects the evolution of specificities rather than evolution of species. This is a feature different from the one observed for the starch-binding domain of the family CBM20 where the starch-binding domain evolution reflects the evolution of species.     

Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus B-6 xylanase Xyn10C capable of producing a doubly arabinose-substituted xylose, α-l-Araf-(1 → 2)-[α-l-Araf-(1 → 3)]-d-Xylp,from rye arabinoxylan

Paenibacillus curdlanolyticus B-6 Xyn10C is a single module xylanase consisting of a glycoside hydrolase family-10 catalytic module. The recombinant enzyme, rXyn10C, was produced by Escherichia coli and characterized. rXyn10C was highly active toward soluble xylans derived from rye, birchwood, and oat spelt, and slightly active toward insoluble wheat arabinoxylan. It hydrolyzed xylooligosaccharides larger than xylotetraose to produce xylotriose, xylobiose, and xylose. When rye arabinoxylan and oat spelt xylan were treated with the enzyme and the hydrolysis products were analyzed by thin layer chromatography (TLC), two unknown hydrolysis products, U1 and U2, were detected in the upper position of xylose on a TLC plate. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and enzymatic analysis using Bacillus licheniformis α-l-arabinofuranosidase Axh43A indicated that U1 was α-l-Araf-(1 → 2)-[α-l-Araf-(1 → 3)]-d-Xylp and U2 was α-l-Araf-(1 → 2)-d-Xylp, suggesting that rXyn10C had strong activity toward a xylosidic linkage before and after a doubly arabinose-substituted xylose residue and was able to accommodate an α-1,2- and α-1,3-linked arabinose-substituted xylose unit in both the −1 and +1 subsites. A molecular docking study suggested that rXyn10C could accommodate a doubly arabinose-substituted xylose residue in its catalytic site, at subsite −1. This is the first report of a xylanase capable of producing α-l-Araf-(1 → 2)-[α-l-Araf-(1 → 3)]-d-Xylp from highly arabinosylated xylan.     

Class II α-mannosidase from Aspergillus fischeri: Energetics of catalysis and inhibition

Energetics of the catalysis of Class II α-mannosidase (E.C.3.2.1.24) from Aspergillus fischeri was studied. The enzyme showed K_cat/K_m for Man (α1-3) Man, Man (α1-2) Man and Man (α1-6) Man as 7488, 5376 and 3690 M^?1 min^?1, respectively. The activation energy, E_a was 15.14, 47.43 and 71.21 kJ/mol for α1-3, α1-2 and α1-6 linked mannobioses, respectively, reflecting the energy barrier in the hydrolysis of latter two substrates. The enzyme showed K_cat/K_m as 3.56 × 10⁵ and 4.61 × 10⁵ M^?1 min^?1 and E_a as 38.7 and 8.92 kJ/mol, towards pNPαMan and 4-MeUmbαMan, respectively. Binding of Swainsonine to the enzyme is stronger than that of 1-deoxymannojirimycin.     

Purification and characterization of a novel thermostable α-l-arabinofuranosidase (α-l-AFase) from Chaetomium sp.

The purification and characterization of an extracellular α-l-arabinofuranosidase (α-l-AFase) from Chaetomium sp. was investigated in this report. The α-l-AFase was purified to homogeneity with a purification fold of 1030. The purified α-l-AFase had a specific activity of 20.6 U mg^?1. The molecular mass of the enzyme was estimated to be 52.9 kDa and 51.6 kDa by SDS–PAGE and gel filtration, respectively. The optimal pH and temperature of the enzyme were pH 5.0 and 70 °C, respectively. The enzyme was stable over a broad pH range of 4.0–10.0 and also exhibited excellent thermostability, i.e., the residual activities reached 75% after treatment at 60 °C for 1 h. The enzyme showed strict substrate specificity for the α-l-arabinofuranosyl linkage. The K_m and V_max values for p-nitrophenyl (pNP)-α-l-arabinofuranoside were calculated to be 1.43 mM and 68.3 μmol min^?1 mg^?1 protein, respectively. Furthermore, the gene encoding α-l-AFase was cloned and sequenced and found to contain a catalytic domain belonging to the glycoside hydrolase (GH) family 43 α-l-AFase. The deduced amino acid sequence of the gene showed the highest identity (67%) to the putative α-l-AFase from Neurospora crassa. This is the first report on the purification, characterization and gene sequence of an α-l-AFase from Chaetomium sp.     

Psychrophilic α-amylase from Aeromonas veronii NS07 isolated from farm soils

Among 120 isolates examined in this study, three isolates were selected for amylase production on starch agar plates following incubation at 10 °C. Identification by 16SrRNA on selected bacterium disclosed the highest similarity for protean regions of this gene as Aeromonas veronii NS07. A 63 kDa psychrophilic amylase enzyme from NS07 strain was purified by two-steps chromatography. The enzyme had the highest specific activity at pH 4 and was active at the range of temperatures from 0 to 50 °C, although the optimum temperature for enzyme activity was found at 10 °C. Analysis of the N-terminal amino acid sequencing disclosed 20 amino acids from purified amylase which had no similarity with other known α-amylases, indicating that the presented enzyme was novel. Amylase activity was enhanced in relation to optimum activity with the presence of sodium sulphate (161%), MnCl₂ (298%), CaCl₂ (175%), FeCl₂ (182%), MgCl₂ (237%), ZnCl₂ (169%), NiCl₂ (139%), NaCl (158%), each at 5 mM, while EDTA, phenylmethane sulphonylfluoride (PMSF) (3 mM), urea (8 M) and SDS (1%) inhibited the enzyme up to 5%, 2%, 80% and 18%, respectively. NS07 strain seems to be suitable as biocatalyst for practical use in liquefaction of starch at low temperatures, detergent and textile industries.     

Activity and thermostability increase of xylanase following transplantation with modules sub-divided from hyper-thermophilic CBM9_1-2

Transplantation is useful for elucidating the functions of structural modules and for engineering enzyme properties. Unexpectedly, transplanting a hyper-thermophilic carbohydrate-binding module, CBM9_1-2, into the mesophilic Aspergillus niger GH11 xylanase (Xyn) slightly decreased the thermal inactivation half-life of Xyn. This effect was further investigated by dividing the CBM9_1-2 module into two smaller parts, C1 and C2, which were transplanted into Xyn to create the chimeras Xyn-C1 and Xyn-C2. Both chimeras exhibited higher catalytic activities on xylan than native Xyn. Xyn-C2 exhibited higher binding affinities for both oat spelt and birch wood xylans, and its thermal inactivation half-life (69.3 min) was 4 or 5 times longer than that of Xyn (17.6 min), Xyn-C1 (13.4 min), and the original chimera containing CBM9_1-2 (13.8 min). In contrast, Xyn-C1 exhibited higher binding affinity for oat spelt xylan, but not for birch wood xylan. Through this rational engineering of the fungal xylanase, the C2 sub-module was shown to have a different thermostabilizing effect than the C1 sub-module. The different functions of the smaller parts of a large module can play pivotal roles in transplantation.