Bifunctional pectinolytic enzyme with separate pectate lyase and pectin methylesterase domains from an alkaliphilic Bacillus

The gene for a novel enzyme having pectate lyase (Pel) and pectin methylesterase (Pme) activities found in the genome of an alkaliphilic Bacillus, KSM-P358, was sequenced. The structural gene contained a long open reading frame of 4314 bp corresponding to a 32-amino-acid signal peptide and a 1406-amino-acid mature enzyme with a molecular mass of 155,666. The mature enzyme contained two uncontiguous regions at amino acids 800–1051 and 1105–1406 exhibiting homology to a Pel from a Bacillus strain with 43.7% and a Pme from Erwinia chrysanthemi with 33.4% identity, respectively. The recombinant enzyme expressed in Bacillus subtilis cells had a molecular mass of 160 kDa and exhibited pH and temperature optima for Pel activity of 10 and 40 °C and those for the Pme activity of 8.5 and 45 °C. The genes for the domains for the Pel and Pme could be separately expressed in Escherichia coli cells, and the catalytic properties of the respective protein fragments were essentially identical to those of the intact enzyme. This novel enzyme is mosaic in that some regions before the two domains exhibited limited but substantial similarity to some regions of carbohydrate-active enzymes. The regions contained parts of a gene for Pels from a Bacillus sp. and Pseudomonas fluorescens, a xylanase from P. fluorescens subsp. cellulosa, a 1,4--mannanase from a Pyromyces sp., a putative Pel from a Streptomyces coelicolor cosmid, a (1,3-1,4)--glucanase from Clostridium thermocellum.