A novel strictly NADPH-dependent Pichia stipitis xylose reductase constructed by site-directed mutagenesis

Xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH) are the key enzymes for xylose fermentation and have been widely used for construction of a recombinant xylose fermenting yeast. The effective recycling of cofactors between XR and XDH has been thought to be important to achieve effective xylose fermentation. Efforts to alter the coenzyme specificity of XR and HDX by site-directed mutagenesis have been widely made for improvement of efficiency of xylose fermentation. We previously succeeded by protein engineering to improve ethanol production by reversing XDH dependency from NAD⁺ to NADP⁺. In this study, we applied protein engineering to construct a novel strictly NADPH-dependent XR from Pichia stipitis by site-directed mutagenesis, in order to recycle NADPH between XR and XDH effectively. One double mutant, E223A/S271A showing strict NADPH dependency with 106% activity of wild-type was generated. A second double mutant, E223D/S271A, showed a 1.27-fold increased activity compared to the wild-type XR with NADPH and almost negligible activity with NADH.     

Reversal of coenzyme specificity and improvement of catalytic efficiency of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pichia</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">stipitis</Emphasis> xylose reductase by rational site-directed mutagenesis

A major problem when xylose is used for ethanol production is the intercellular redox imbalance arising from different coenzyme specificities of xylose reductase (XR) and xylitol dehydrogenase. The residue Lys21 in XR from Pichia stipitis was subjected to site-directed mutagenesis to alter its coenzyme specificity. The N272D mutant exhibited improved catalytic efficiency when NADH was the coenzyme. Both K21A and K21A/N272D preferred NADH to NADPH, their catalytic efficiencies for NADPH were almost zero. The catalytic efficiency of K21A/N272D for NADH was almost 9-fold and 2-fold that of K21A and the wild-type enzyme, respectively. Complete reversal of coenzyme specificity toward NADH and improved catalytic efficiency were achieved. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. Qi-Kai Zeng, Hong-Li Du, Jing-Fang Wang have contributed equally to this work.     

分批补料对木糖发酵生产乙醇的影响

以树干毕赤酵母为发酵菌种,纯木糖为发酵底物,通过分批补料来提高糖利用率以及乙醇得率。结果表明,在24h内,最佳初始木糖浓度为80g/L,在28h的发酵周期中,可以将木糖浓度提高至90g/L,在32h发酵周期内可以将木糖浓度提高至100g/L。通过分批补料,乙醇浓度得到明显提高。当总糖浓度分别为80g/L、90g/L时,24h发酵周期内,分批补料次数以1次为宜,乙醇浓度分别达30.95g/L、32.60g/L,相比于不补料即一次性投料,乙醇浓度分别提高了9.36%、9.18%。总糖浓度100g/L,28h发酵周期内,补料2次效果最佳,乙醇浓度达37.49g/L,比一次性投料下提高了10.36%,较一次性投料达到相同发酵效果缩短了4h。     

Histidine ligands in bacterial metallothionein enhance cluster stability

The cyanobacterial metallothionein (MT) SmtA is the prototype for bacterial MTs and protects against elevated levels of zinc. In contrast to mammalian MTs, bacterial MTs coordinate to metal ions not only via cysteine sulfurs, but unusually for MTs, also via histidine nitrogens. To investigate whether histidine coordination in these metal-sulfur clusters provides advantages over S-coordination only, we mutated the two metal-binding histidine residues in the cyanobacterial MT SmtA from Synechococcus PCC7942 to cysteines. We show that the mutant proteins are still capable of binding up to four zinc ions as is the wild-type protein. However, the mutations perturb protein folding and metal-binding dynamics. Interestingly, several homologues of SmtA also show variations in these two residues. We conclude that histidine residues in Synechococcus PCC7942 SmtA have a stabilising effect due to electrostatic interactions that impact on protein folding and metal cluster charge, and are involved in fine-tuning the reactivity of the bound metal ions.     

人脑醛糖还原酶的纯化和一些基本性质

使用DEAE纤维素柱层析、PBE-94层析聚焦、NADP~+-Sepharose 4B亲合层析及SephadexG-100凝胶过滤分离纯化了人脑醛糖还原酶。在DEAE层析中,用咪唑-HCI缓冲液替代了磷酸缓冲液,改善了分离效果。在聚丙烯酰胺及SDS聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳中,纯化的人脑醛糖还原酶均呈一条区带。它的pI为5.6,最适pH为6.5,分子量为36,000,底物特异性和氨基酸组成与其它哺乳动物的醛糖还原酶有相似性。开链式醛糖是醛糖还原酶的真正底物,它在开链式和半缩醛的平衡体系中占比例极小,因而推知醛糖还原酶对此底物有很高的K_(cat)和K_(cat)/K_m值,能有效地将它们还原成相应的醇。     

Nonhomologous end joining and homologous recombination DNA repair pathways in integration mutagenesis in the xylose-fermenting yeast Pichia stipitis

Pichia stipitis integrates linear homologous DNA fragments mainly ectopically. High rates of randomly occurring integration allow tagging mutagenesis with high efficiency using simply PCR amplificates of suitable selection markers from the P. stipitis genome. Linearization of an autonomously replicating vector caused a distinct increase of the transformation efficiency compared with the circular molecule. Cotransformation of a restriction endonuclease further enhanced the transformation efficiency. This effect was also observed with integrative vector DNA. In most cases vector integration in chromosomal targets did not depend on microhomologies, indicating that restriction-enzyme-mediated integration (REMI) does not play an essential role in P. stipitis. Small deletions were observed at the ends of the integrated vectors and in the target sites. Disruption of the PsKU80 gene increased the frequency of homologous integration considerably but resulted in a remarkable decrease of the transformation efficiency. These results suggest that in P. stipitis the nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ) pathway obviously predominates the homologous recombination pathway of double-strand break repair.     

人谷胱甘肽S-转移酶pi(GSTp)中半胱氨酸对其在细胞氧化应激下功能的影响

利用PCR定点突变技术构建人GSTp三种半胱氨酸突变体C~(47/101)、C~(14/47/101)和C~(14/47/101/169)。将CSTp 野生型和突变体表达质粒转染293细胞,以CDNB 为底物测定胞内GST 的转移酶活性,结果显示各类突变体均明显抑制了细胞内源性CST 的催化活性,具有显著的负显性(dominant nega-tive)突变体的功能;将CSTp 野生型和突变体与c-Jun、NF-kB 和p53的报告基因载体共转染,通过萤光素酶活性测定发现突变体C~(14/47/101)和C~(14/47/101/169)能明显激活c-Jun 和p21的转录活性;Western印迹分析显示突变体均能上调细胞内p21蛋白的水平,细胞存活率的测定表明GSTp 突变体能增强293细胞对H_2O_2刺激的敏感性;实验结果表明半胱氨酸残基对于维持GSTp 在对抗细胞氧化应激过程中的保护作用至关重要。     

Identification of lysine-78 as an essential residue in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae xylose reductase

Yeast xylose reductases are hypothesized as hybrid enzymes as their primary sequences contain elements of both the aldo-keto reductases (AKR) and short chain dehydrogenase/reductase (SDR) enzyme families. During catalysis by members of both enzyme families, an essential Lys residue H-bonds to a Tyr residue that donates proton to the aldehyde substrate. In the Saccharomyces cerevisiae xylose reductase, Tyr49 has been identified as the proton donor. However, the primary sequence of the enzyme contains two Lys residues, Lys53 and Lys78, corresponding to the conserved motifs for SDR and AKR enzyme families, respectively, that may H-bond to Tyr49. We used site-directed mutagenesis to substitute each of these Lys residues with Met. The activity of the K53M variant was slightly decreased as compared to the wild-type, while that of the K78M variant was negligible. The results suggest that Lys78 is the essential residue that H-bonds to Tyr49 during catalysis and indicate that the active site residues of yeast xylose reductases match those of the AKR, rather than SDR, enzymes. Intrinsic enzyme fluorescence spectroscopic analysis suggests that Lys78 may also contribute to the efficient binding of NADPH to the enzyme.     

The role of cysteine residues in the sulphate transporter, SHST1: Construction of a functional cysteine-less transporter

We investigated the role of cysteine residues in the sulphate transporter, SHST1, with the aim of generating a functional cysteine-less variant. SHST1 contains five cysteine residues and none was essential for function. However, replacement of C421 resulted in a reduction in transport activity. Sulphate transport by C205 mutants was dependent on the size of the residue at this position. Alanine at position 205 resulted in a complete loss of function whereas leucine resulted in a 3-fold increase in sulphate transport relative to wild type SHST1. C205 is located in a putative intracellular loop and our results suggest that this loop may be important for sulphate transport. By replacing C205 with leucine and the other four cysteine residues with alanine, we constructed a cysteine-less variant of SHST1 that has transport characteristics indistinguishable from wild type. This construct will be useful for further structure and function studies of SHST1.     

树干毕赤酵母NLP31发酵产乙醇的研究

研究了树干毕赤酵母NLP31在木糖质量浓度为45 g/L的3种发酵培养基Ⅰ、Ⅱ和Ⅲ上发酵3轮的发酵性能以及在45 g/L木糖或混合糖(葡萄糖30 g/L,木糖15 g/L)的发酵培养基Ⅲ上的代谢历程。结果表明:树干毕赤酵母NLP31在发酵培养基Ⅲ上,乙醇浓度和乙醇得率均达到最高,分别为(17.29±0.15)g/L和(84.65±0.58)%。在45 g/L木糖或混合糖(葡萄糖30 g/L,木糖15 g/L)的发酵培养基Ⅲ上的代谢历程表明:混合糖发酵达到最大乙醇得率的时间仅为12 h,要比单一木糖发酵缩短了8 h。树干毕赤酵母NLP31在以廉价的无机N源为发酵培养基上的乙醇发酵性能高,能够降低燃料乙醇的生产成本。     

定点突变技术在DNA缺失改造上的应用

本实验采用寡聚核苷酸指导的定点突变法,缺失了分别存在于YFD42和YFD58中的a-因子信号肽序列与a-hANP基因和a-因子信号肽序列与a-1FN基因间接头区域的27和18个核苷酸。由于被缺失部分恰好含有一个酶切位点,利用这一特点,酶切检查初步筛选出缺失了一个HindⅢ酶切位点的突变子。经DNA序列分析,证实缺失的核苷酸序列和设计完全一致。     

Interrelationships among human aldo-keto reductase: immunochemical, kinetic and structural properties

We have propsed earlier a three gene loci model to explain the expression of the aldo-keto reductases in human tissues. According to this model, aldose reductase is a monomer of α subunits, aldehyde reductase I is a dimer of α, β subunits, and aldehyde reductase II is a monomer of δ subunits. Using immunoaffinity methods, we have isolated the subunits of aldehyde reductase I (α and β) and characterized them by immunocompetition studies. It is observed that the two subunits of aldehyde reductase I are weakly held together in the holoenzyme and can be dissociated under high ionic conditions. Aldose reductase (α subunits) was generated from human placenta and liver aldehyde reductase I by ammonium sulfate (80% saturation). The kinetic, structural and immunological properties of the generated aldose reductase are similar to the aldose reductase obtained from the human erythrocytes and bovine lens. The main characteristic of the generated enzyme is the requirement of Li₂SO₄(0.4 M) for the expression of maximum enzyme activity, and its K_m for glucose is less than 50 mM, whereas the parent enzyme, aldehyde reductase I, is completely inhibited by 0.4 M Li₂SO₄ and its K_m for glucose is more than 200 mM. The β subunits of aldehyde reductase I did not have enzyme activity but cross-reacted with anti-aldehyde reductase I antiserum. The β subunits hybridized with the α subunits of placenta aldehyde I, and aldose reductase purified from human brain and bovine lens. The hybridized enzyme had the characteristics properties of placenta aldehyde reductase I.     

Insult

INSULT, a novel method for the creation of insertions, deletions, and point mutations without subcloning, requires only one new primer per mutant, and produces circular plasmids, obviating the need for special “ultracompetent” cells. The method includes cycles of linear amplification with a thermophilic polymerase, and nick repair after each cycle with a thermophilic ligase. After production of multiple single-stranded copies of circular mutation-bearing plasmid DNA, addition of a “generic” primer followed by one or more polymerase reaction cycles generates double-stranded circular DNA bearing the desired mutation.