Covalent Immobilization of Alcohol Dehydrogenase (ADH2) from Haloferax volcanii: How to Maximize Activity and Optimize Performance of Halophilic Enzymes

Alcohol dehydrogenase from halophilic archaeon Haloferax volcanii (HvADH2) was successfully covalently immobilized on metal-derivatized epoxy Sepabeads. The immobilization conditions were optimized by investigating several parameters that affect the halophilic enzyme–support interaction. The highest immobilization efficiency (100 %) and retention activity (60 %) were achieved after 48 h of incubation of the enzyme with Ni-epoxy Sepabeads support in 100 mM Tris–HCl buffer, pH 8, containing 3 M KCl at 5 °C. No significant stabilization was observed after blocking the unreacted epoxy groups with commonly used hydrophilic agents. A significant increase in the stability of the immobilized enzyme was achieved by blocking the unreacted epoxy groups with ethylamine. The immobilization process increased the enzyme stability, thermal activity, and organic solvents tolerance when compared to its soluble counterpart, indicating that the immobilization enhances the structural and conformational stability. One step purification–immobilization of this enzyme has been carried out on metal chelate-epoxy Sepabeads, as an efficient method to obtain immobilized biocatalyst directly from bacterial extracts.     

Immobilization of β-glucosidase on bifunctional periodic mesoporous organosilicas

The aminopropyl-functionalized ethane-bridged bifunctional periodic mesoporous organosilicas (APEPMOs) were synthesized by the co-condensation of 1,2-bis (triethoxysilyl) ethane and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane in the presence of cationic surfactants octadecyltrimethylammonium chloride in basic medium. The pores of the APEPMOs were expanded with N,N-dimethyldecylamine and the pore-expanded materials were utilized as supports for β-glucosidase immobilization. A high enzyme loading of 120 mg per g support was achieved in 18 h, and 95.5 % of enzymatic activity was retained. β-Glucosidases were strongly immobilized on APEPMOs with only 5 % desorption in the washing step with buffer solution. The immobilized enzyme had 75 % activity after 20 batch reactions and had improved thermal stability, relative to the free enzyme. These results demonstrate that APEPMOs would be promising supports for β-glucosidases immobilization.     

Magnetic chitosan beads for covalent immobilization of nucleoside 2′-deoxyribosyltransferase: application in nucleoside analogues synthesis

Cross-linked magnetic chitosan beads were prepared in presence of epichlorohydrin under alkaline conditions, and subsequently incubated with glutaraldehyde in order to obtain an activated support for covalent attachment of nucleoside 2′-deoxyribosyltransferase from Lactobacillus reuteri (LrNDT). Changing the amount of magnetite (Fe₃O₄) and epichlorohydrin (EPI) led to different macroscopic beads to be used as supports for enzyme immobilization, whose morphology and properties were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, spin electron resonance (ESR), and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM). Once activated with glutaraldehyde, the best support was chosen after evaluation of immobilization yield and product yield in the synthesis of thymidine from 2′-deoxyuridine and thymine. In addition, optimal conditions for highest activity of immobilized LrNDT on magnetic chitosan were determined by response surface methodology (RSM). Immobilized biocatalyst retained 50 % of its maximal activity after 56.3 h at 60 °C, whereas 100 % activity was observed after storage at 40 °C for 144 h. This novel immobilized biocatalyst has been successfully employed in the enzymatic synthesis of 2′-deoxyribonucleoside analogues as well as arabinosyl-nucleosides such as vidarabine (ara-A) and cytarabine (ara-C). Furthermore, this is the first report which describes the enzymatic synthesis of these arabinosyl-nucleosides catalyzed by an immobilized nucleoside 2′-deoxyribosyltransferase. Finally, the attached enzyme to magnetic chitosan beads could be easily recovered and recycled for 30 consecutive batch reactions with negligible loss of catalytic activity in the synthesis of 2,6-diaminopurine-2′-deoxyriboside and 5-trifluorothymidine.     

Activity of myrosinase from Sinapis alba seeds immobilized into Ca-polygalacturonate as a simplified model of soil-root interface mucigel

Ca-polygalacturonate is a demethoxylated component of pectins which are constitutive of plant root mucigel. In order to define the role of root mucigel in myrosinase immobilization and activity at root level, a myrosinase enzyme which had been isolated from Sinapis alba seeds was immobilized into Ca-polygalacturonate. The activity profile for the immobilized and free enzyme was evaluated using the pH-Stat method as a function of time, temperature, and pH. The Michaelis-Menten kinetic parameters change between the immobilized (V _max ?=?127?±?13 U mg^?1 protein; K _M ?=?6.28?±?0.09?mM) and free (V _max ?=?17?±?1 U mg^?1 protein; K _M ?=?0.96?±?0.01?mM) forms of myrosinase, probably due to conformational changes involving the active site as a consequence of enzyme immobilization. Immobilized enzyme activity evaluated as a function of different substrates gave the highest value with nasturtin, the glucosinolate that is typical of several brassicaceae plant roots containing the glucosinolate-myrosinase defensive system. No feedback regulation mechanism was found in the presence of an excess of enzymatic reaction products (i.e. allyl isothiocyanate or sulphate). The high enzyme immobilization yield into Ca-polygalacturonate and its activity preservation under different conditions suggest that the enzyme released by plants at root level could be entrapped in root mucigel in order to preserve its activity.     

Immobilization and characterisation of a lipase from a new source, Bacillus sp. ITP-001

A new source of lipase from Bacillus sp. ITP-001 was immobilized by physical adsorption on the polymer poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) in aqueous solution. The support and immobilized lipase were characterised, compared to the lyophilised lipase, with regard to the specific surface area, adsorption–desorption isotherms, pore volume (Vp) and size (dp) by nitrogen adsorption, differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetric analysis, chemical composition analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and biochemical properties. The immobilized enzyme displayed a shift in optimum pH towards the acidic side with an optimum at pH 4.0, whereas the optimum pH for the free enzyme was at pH 7.0; the optimum temperature of activity was 80 and 37 °C for the free and immobilized enzyme, respectively. The inactivation rate constant for the immobilized enzyme at 37 °C was 0.0038 h^?1 and the half-life was 182.41 h. The kinetic parameters obtained for the immobilized enzyme gave a Michaelis–Menten constant (K _m) of 49.10 mM and a maximum reaction velocity (V _max) of 205.03 U/g. Furthermore, the reuse of the lipase immobilized by adsorption allowed us to observe that it could be reused for 10 successive cycles, duration of each cycle (1 h), maintaining 33 % of the initial activity.     

Immobilization of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida antarctica</Emphasis> lipase B onto Purolite<Superscript>®</Superscript> MN102 and its application in solvent-free and organic media esterification

The aim of this study was to develop simple and efficient method for immobilization of Candida antarctica lipase B onto hydrophobic anion exchange resin Purolite^® MN102 and to apply immobilized catalyst for the enzymatic synthesis of two valuable esters—isoamyl acetate and l-ascorbyl oleate. At optimized conditions (1 M phosphate buffer pH = 7, 7 h at 25 °C, and 18.75 mg of offered proteins g^?1 of support), immobilized lipase with hydrolytic activity of 888.4 p-nitrophenyl butyrate units g^?1 was obtained. Afterwards, preparation was applied for the solvent-free synthesis of isoamyl acetate from triacetin and isoamyl alcohol. At 75 °C, 1 M of isoamyl alcohol, and 6 mg ml^?1 of enzyme 100 % yield was achieved in 6 h, while at prolonged reaction times, complete conversion was enabled even at lower temperatures, lower lipase loadings, and higher substrate concentrations. After 15 consecutive reuses (60 h), activity of catalyst dropped to 50 % of its initial value and total amount of 1.31 mol (170.55 g) of ester with 1 g of biocatalyst was produced. Even higher operational stability of lipase (25 % loss of activity in 200 h) was observed in the synthesis of l-ascorbyl oleate performed in organic solvent (t-butanol). Multiple use of one batch of immobilized biocatalyst in both cases led to a significant process cost reduction and substantial increment of corresponding productivities.     

Enzymatic synthesis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>-adenosylhomocysteine: immobilization of recombinant <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase from <Emphasis Type="Italic">Corynebacterium glutamicum</Emphasis> (ATCC 13032)

Recombinant S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase from Corynebacterium glutamicum (CgSAHase) was covalently bound to Eupergit® C. The maximum yield of bound protein was 91% and the catalytic efficiency was 96.9%. When the kinetic results for the immobilized enzyme were compared with those for the soluble enzyme, no decrease in the catalytic efficiency of the former was detected. Both soluble and immobilized enzymes showed similar optimum pH and temperature ranges. The reuse of immobilized CgSAHase caused a loss of synthetic activity due to NAD⁺ release, although the binding to the support was sufficiently strong for up to 5 cycles with 95% conversion efficiency. The immobilized enzyme was incubated every 3 cycles with 100 μM NAD⁺ to recover the loss of activity after 5 cycles. This maintained the activity for another 50 cycles. The purification of S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) provided an overall yield of 76% and 98% purity as determined by HPLC and NMR analyses. The results indicate the suitability of immobilized CgSAHase for synthesizing SAH and other important S-nucleosidylhomocysteine.     

Cellulases immobilization on chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles: application for <Emphasis Type="Italic">Agave Atrovirens</Emphasis> lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysis

In the present study, Trichoderma reesei cellulase was covalently immobilized on chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles using glutaraldehyde as a coupling agent. The average diameter of magnetic nanoparticles before and after enzyme immobilization was about 8 and 10 nm, respectively. The immobilized enzyme retained about 37 % of its initial activity, and also showed better thermal and storage stability than free enzyme. Immobilized cellulase retained about 80 % of its activity after 15 cycles of carboxymethylcellulose hydrolysis and was easily separated with the application of an external magnetic field. However, in this reaction, K _m was increased eight times. The immobilized enzyme was able to hydrolyze lignocellulosic material from Agave atrovirens leaves with yield close to the amount detected with free enzyme and it was re-used in vegetal material conversion up to four cycles with 50 % of activity decrease. This provides an opportunity to reduce the enzyme consumption during lignocellulosic material saccharification for bioethanol production.     

Soybean hull peroxidase immobilization on macroporous glycidyl methacrylates with different surface characteristics

Soybean hull peroxidase (SHP, E.C. 1.11.1.7) was immobilized by a glutaraldehyde and periodate method onto series of macroporous copolymers of glycidyl methacrylate (GMA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) with various surface characteristics and pore size diameters ranging from 44 to 200 nm. Glutaraldehyde immobilization method and poly(GMA-co-EGDMA) named SGE 20/12 with pore sizes of 120 nm gave immobilized enzyme with highest specific activity of 25 U/g. Deactivation studies showed that immobilization increased stability of SHP and that surface characteristics of the used copolymer had a major influence on a stability of immobilized enzyme at high temperatures and in an organic solvent. The highest thermostability was obtained using the copolymer SGE 20/12 with pore size of 120 nm, while the highest stability in dioxane had SHP immobilized onto copolymer SGE 10/4 with pore size of 44 nm. Immobilized SHP showed a wider pH optimum as compared to the native enzyme especially at alkaline pH values and 3.2 times increased K _m value for pyrogallol. After 6 cycles of repeated use in batch reactor, immobilized SHP retained 25 % of its original activity. Macroporous copolymers with different surface characteristics can be used for fine tuning of activity and stability of immobilized SHP to obtain a biocatalyst suitable for phenol oxidation or polymer synthesis in organic solvents.     

Amino silicones finished fabrics for lipase immobilization: Fabrics finishing and catalytic performance of immobilized lipase

Finishing of silk fabric was achieved by using amino-functional polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and lipase from Candida sp. 99-125 was immobilized on the treated silk fabrics. Hydrophobic fabrics were obtained by dipping the native fabric in 0.125–0.25% (w/v) PDMS solution and dried at 70 °C. The direct adsorption on PDMS-treated fabric was verified to be a better strategy for lipase immobilization than that by covalent binding. Compared to unfinished fabrics, the hydrolytic activity of immobilized enzyme on the finished fabric was improved by 1.6 times. Moreover, the activity of immobilized enzymes on hydrophobic fabrics was significantly improved in different concentrations of strong polar solvents such as methanol and ethanol, and in common organic solvents with different octanol–water partition coefficients (Log P). Enzymatic activity and stability in 15% water content system (added water accounted for the total reaction mixtures, v/v) showed more than 30% improvement in each batch. The amino–silicone finished fabric surface was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The hydrophobic fabric immobilized enzyme could be recycled for more than 80 times with no significant decrease in esterification activity. PDMS-treated woven silk fabrics could be a potential support for lipase immobilization in catalytic esterification processes.     

Immobilization and stabilization of d-hydantoinase from Vigna angularis and its use in the production of N-carbamoyl-d-phenylglycine. Improvement of the reaction yield by allowing chemical racemization of the substrate

This work reports the immobilization of a multimeric d-hydantoinase (DHTase) from Vigna angularis (E.C. 3.5.2.2.) on agarose beads activated with glyoxyl groups aiming to improve its stability via multipoint covalent attachment. The final reduction with sodium borohydride resulted in a drop in enzyme activity that could be decreased by adding Zn²⁺ or Mg²⁺. The optimal preparation with high activity (58 % recovered activity) and stability (around 86-fold more stable than the free enzyme) was obtained by DHTase immobilization on glyoxyl agarose for 24 h at 25 °C and pH 10.05, and a borohydride reduction step in the presence of 10 mM Zn²⁺ (DHTase-Glx). The enzyme was almost fully immobilized on glyoxyl agarose (19.8 mg/g of support) when offering 20 mg/g. This immobilized biocatalyst was used to catalyze the hydrolysis of d,l-phenylhydantoin under substrate racemization conditions, which produced 99 % of N-carbamoyl-d-phenylglycine after 9 h reaction.     

Immobilization of β-glucosidase from Scytalidium lignicola on Chitosan

Chitosan was found to be a better support than alginate beads for immobilization of β-glucosidase from Scytalidium lignicola. The optimum concentration of glutaraldehyde for enzyme immobilization was 0.2%. Immobolized β-glucosidase was more able in the pH range of 3–6. Immobilized β-glucosidase retained about 70% of its activity at 50%C after 72 h of incubation while free enzyme lost most of its activity. The log of activity retained vs time was a straight line with free enzyme but was curved for immnobilized enzyme. Lineweaver-Burk plots of free and immoblized β-glucosidase gave K_m values of 2 × 10⁻⁴ M and 5.5 × 10⁻⁴ M for p-nitrophenyl β-d-glucopyranoside, respectively. Addition of immobilized β-glucosidase to a saccharification system gave a 30% increase in reducing sugar availability compared to free enzyme addition and was at least 4 times reusable without appreciable loss in enzyme activity.     

Development of Bed Reactor Using Brick Dust Immobilized CIVI-Cellulase from Seeds of Cowpea (Vigna sinensis L)

Cellulase extracted from seeds of Cowpea (Vigna sinensis L var VITA-4) was partially purified and immobilized on brick dust as solid support via glutaraldehyde. The percentage retention of the enzyme activity on brick dust was nearly 85%. After immobilization specific activity of the enzyme increased from 0.275 to 0.557 U mg^?1 protein with about 2 fold enrichment. The optimum pH and temperature of soluble enzyme were determined as pH 4.6 and WC, respectively whereas immobilized enzyme showed at pH 5.0 and 37°C, respectively. The V_max values for soluble and immobilized enzyme were determined as 6.67 and 1.25 mg min^?1, respectively whereas K_m values were 4.35 and 4.76 mg ml^?1, respectively. The immobilized enzyme displayed higher thermal stability than soluble enzyme and retained about 50% of its initial activity after 12 reuses. Immobilized enzyme was packed in an indigenously designed double walled glass bed reactor for continuous production of reducing sugars.     

Characterization of a novel xylanase from Armillaria gemina and its immobilization onto SiO2 nanoparticles

Enhanced catalytic activities of different lignocellulases were obtained from Armillaria gemina under statistically optimized parameters using a jar fermenter. This strain showed maximum xylanase, endoglucanase, cellobiohydrolase, and β-glucosidase activities of 1,270, 146, 34, and 15 U mL^?1, respectively. Purified A. gemina xylanase (AgXyl) has the highest catalytic efficiency (k _cat/K _m?=?1,440 mg?mL^?1?s^?1) ever reported for any fungal xylanase, highlighting the significance of the current study. We covalently immobilized the crude xylanase preparation onto functionalized silicon oxide nanoparticles, achieving 117 % immobilization efficiency. Further immobilization caused a shift in the optimal pH and temperature, along with a fourfold improvement in the half-life of crude AgXyl. Immobilized AgXyl gave 37.8 % higher production of xylooligosaccharides compared to free enzyme. After 17 cycles, the immobilized enzyme retained 92 % of the original activity, demonstrating its potential for the synthesis of xylooligosaccharides in industrial applications.     

Production of cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase by immobilized <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus</Emphasis> sp. on chitosan matrix

The whole-cell immobilization on chitosan matrix was evaluated. Bacillus sp., as producer of CGTase, was grown in solid-state and batch cultivation using three types of starches (cassava, potato and cornstarch). Biomass growth and substrate consumption were assessed by flow cytometry and modified phenol–sulfuric acid assays, respectively. Qualitative analysis of CGTase production was determined by colorless area formation on solid culture containing phenolphthalein. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis demonstrated that bacterial cells were immobilized on chitosan matrix efficiently. Free cells reached very high numbers during batch culture while immobilized cells maintained initial inoculum concentration. The maximum enzyme activity achieved by free cells was 58.15 U ml^?1 (36 h), 47.50 U ml^?1 (36 h) and 68.36 U ml^?1 (36 h) on cassava, potato and cornstarch, respectively. CGTase activities for immobilized cells were 82.15 U ml^?1 (18 h) on cassava, 79.17 U ml^?1 (12 h) on potato and 55.37 U ml^?1 (in 6 h and max 77.75 U ml^?1 in 36 h) on cornstarch. Application of immobilization technique increased CGTase activity significantly. The immobilized cells produced CGTase with higher activity in a shorter fermentation time comparing to free cells.     

Immobilization of fuculose-1-phosphate aldolase from E. coli to glyoxal-agarose gels by multipoint covalent attachment

Recombinant fuculose 1-phosphate aldolase (FucA) from E. coli has been immobilized by multipoint covalent attachment to glyoxal-agarose gels. Experiments, varying the main parameters that control the immobilization process (surface density of aldehyde groups, temperature, pH), were carried out. An immobilization yield of 80–90% and FucA retained activity on immobilized derivative of 10–20% can be achieved when pH?10, 20°C and 200?µmoles?cm^?3 of aldehyde groups was used. The observed activity loss in the immobilization process might be related to the fact that the complex quaternary structure of the enzyme could not be maintained. A short contact-time enzyme support is required to obtain high ratio of active to total immobilized enzyme.

A highly loaded derivative of immobilized FucA (65?AU?cm^?3 of support) has been prepared to use in aldol condensation reactions. Reactions catalyzed by these aldolases involve the use of non-conventional media because of substrate solubility. For instance, the condensation of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and Z-amino-propanal, Z-(R)-alaninal and Z-(S)- alaninal in highly concentrated water-in-oil emulsions gave synthetic yields of 40, 25 and 29% respectively.     

Immobilization of enzymes with polyaziridine: II. D-amino acid oxidase

Summary A novel method of enzyme immobilization using a tri-functional aziridine to immobilize enzymes was used to immobilize D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) with good retention of enzymatic activity (62%–89%). The stability of the immobilized DAAO in a fixed bed reactor with continuous operation using D-phenylalanine as substrate yielded a projected half-life of 69 days which is far superior to other methods of immobilization of DAAO.     

Characterization and optimization of β-galactosidase immobilization process on a mixed-matrix membrane

β-Galactosidase is an important enzyme catalyzing not only the hydrolysis of lactose to the monosaccharides glucose and galactose but also the transgalactosylation reaction to produce galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS). In this study, β-galactosidase was immobilized by adsorption on a mixed-matrix membrane containing zirconium dioxide. The maximum β-galactosidase adsorbed on these membranes was 1.6 g/m², however, maximal activity was achieved at an enzyme concentration of around 0.5 g/m². The tests conducted to investigate the optimal immobilization parameters suggested that higher immobilization can be achieved under extreme parameters (pH and temperature) but the activity was not retained at such extreme operational parameters. The investigations on immobilized enzymes indicated that no real shift occurred in its optimal temperature after immobilization though the activity in case of immobilized enzyme was better retained at lower temperature (5 °C). A shift of 0.5 unit was observed in optimal pH after immobilization (pH 6.5 to 7). Perhaps the most striking results are the kinetic parameters of the immobilized enzyme; while the Michaelis constant (K_m) value increased almost eight times compared to the free enzyme, the maximum enzyme velocity (V_max) remained almost constant.     

Covalent immobilization of ω-transaminase from Vibrio fluvialis JS17 on chitosan beads

Chitosan beads were prepared by emulsion method and used for the immobilization of ω-transaminase of Vibrio fluvialis. The yield of enzyme immobilization (54.3%) and its residual activity (17.8%) were higher than those obtained with other commercial beads. ω-Transaminase was effectively immobilized on the chitosan beads at pH 6.0. The optimal pH of the immobilized enzyme was pH 9.0, which is the same as that of the free enzyme. The immobilized enzyme on chitosan beads retained ca. 77% of its conversion after five consecutive reactions with the 25 mM substrate, while the immobilized enzyme on Eupergit^® C retained 12%. Also, the immobilized ω-transaminase on chitosan bead retained 70% of initial activity when it's stored at 4 °C for 3.5 weeks. Addition of the co-factor, pyridoxal 5-phosphate (PLP), was needed to maintain the stability of the immobilized ω-transaminase.     

Immobilization of halophilic <Emphasis Type="Italic">Bacillus</Emphasis> sp. EMB9 protease on functionalized silica nanoparticles and application in whey protein hydrolysis

The present work targets the fabrication of an active, stable, reusable enzyme preparation using functionalized silica nanoparticles as an effective enzyme support for crude halophilic Bacillus sp. EMB9 protease. The immobilization efficiency under optimized conditions was 60 %. Characterization of the immobilized preparation revealed marked increase in pH and thermal stability. It retained 80 % of its original activity at 70 °C while t _1/2 at 50 °C showed a five-fold enhancement over that for the free protease. Kinetic constants K _m and V _max were indicative of a higher reaction velocity along with decreased affinity for substrate. The preparation could be efficiently reused up to 6 times and successfully hydrolysed whey proteins with high degree of hydrolysis. Immobilization of a crude halophilic protease on a nanobased scaffold makes the process cost effective and simple.