Overexpression and purification of Rhizobium etli glutaminase A by recombinant and conventional procedures

Bio-prospecting the future in perspective of amidohydrolase L-glutaminase from marine habitats

In the current scenario, considerable attention is being given to the enzyme L-glutaminase (EC 3.5.1.2). It belongs to the amidohydrolase class adherent to the family of serine-reliant β-lactamases and the penicillin-binding proteins due to its higher affinity to polymerize and modify peptidoglycan synthesis. However, based on the catalytic proficiency, L-glutaminase is characterized as a proteolytic endopeptidase that cleaves peptide linkage and emancipates various byproducts, viz. ammonia along with glutamate. L-glutamine is considered the key amino acid reportedly involved in multiple metabolic pathways such as nitrogen metabolism. The present review is focused on the recent development and aspects concomitant to the biotechnological applicability of L-glutaminase predominantly from the marine habitat. Additionally, a majority of L-glutaminases finds application in cancer therapy as therapeutic agents, especially for acute lymphocytic leukaemia. The in vitro studies have been effective against various human cancer cell lines. L-glutaminase enhances the growth of probiotic bacteria. Apart from all these applications, it is suitably applicable in fermented foods as a flavour enhancer especially the umami flavour and content. Marine habitats have largely been exploited for their bio-catalytic potential but very scarcely for therapeutic enzymes. Some of the reports of such marine bacterial isolates from Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp. and Vibrio sp. are in the domain, but none highlights the therapeutic applications predominantly as anticancer and anti-proliferative agents. KEY POINTS: The exploration of marine habitats along the Gujarat coasts mainly for bacteria secreting L-glutaminase is scarcely reported, and even more scarce are the amidohydrolases from these marine niches as compared to their terrestrial counterparts. Microbial sourced amidohydrolase has wide bio-applicability that includes food, cosmetics and therapeutics especially as anticancer/anti-proliferative agent making it of immense biotechnological significance.

Marine microbial L-glutaminase: from pharmaceutical to food industry

Deamination of L-glutamine to glutamic acid with the concomitant release of ammonia by the activity of L-glutaminase (L-glutamine amidohydrolase EC 3.5.1.2) is a unique reaction that also finds potential applications in different sectors ranging from therapeutics to food industry. Owing to its cost-effectiveness, rapidity, and compatibility with downstream processes, microbial production of L-glutaminase is preferred over the production by other sources. Marine microorganisms including bacteria, yeasts, and moulds have manifested remarkable capacity to produce L-glutaminase and, therefore, are considered as prospective candidates for large-scale production of this enzyme. The main focus of this article is to provide an overview of L-glutaminase producing marine microorganisms, to discuss strategies used for the lab- and large-scale production of these enzyme and to review the application of L-glutaminase from marine sources so that the future prospects can be understood. KEY POINTS: • L-glutaminase has potential applications in different sectors ranging from therapeutics to food industry • Marine microorganisms are considered as prospective candidates for large-scale production of L-glutaminase • Marine microbial L-glutaminase have great potential in therapeutics and in the food industry.

Novel halo- and thermo-tolerant Cohnella sp. A01 L-glutaminase: heterologous expression and biochemical characterization

L-glutaminase importance to use in the food industry and medicine has attracted much attention. Enzymes stability has always been a challenge while working with them. We heterologously expressed and characterized a novel stable L-glutaminase from an extremophile bacterium (Cohnella sp. A01, PTCC No: 1921). K_m, V_max, catalytic efficiency and specific activity of rSAM were respectively 1.8 mM, 49 µmol/min, 1851 1/(S.mM) and 9.2 IU/mg. Activation energy for substrate to product conversion and irreversible thermo-inactivation were respectively 4 kJ/mol and 105 kJ/mol from the linear Arrhenius plot. rSAM had the highest activity at temperature 50 °C, pH 8 and was resistant to a wide range of temperature and pH. In compare to the other characterized glutaminases, rSAM was the most resistant to NaCl. Mg²⁺, glycerol, DTT, and BME enhanced the enzyme activity and iodoacetate and iodoacetamide inhibited it. rSAM had only been partially digested by some proteases. According to the Fluorimetry and Circular dichroism analysis, rSAM in pH range from 4 to 11 and temperatures up to 60 °C had structural stability. A cysteine residue in the enzyme active site and a thiol bond were predicted upon the modeled tertiary structure of rSAM. Present structural studies also confirmed the presence of a thiol bond in its structure.

Recent advances in microbial glutaminase production and applications-a concise review

This article focuses on significant advances in the production and applications of microbial glutaminases and provides insight into the structures of different glutaminases. Glutaminases catalyze the deamidation of glutamine to glutamic acid, and this unique ability forms the basis of their applications in various industries such as pharmaceutical and food organizations. Microbial glutaminases from bacteria, actinomycetes, yeast, and fungi are of greater significance than animal glutaminases because of their stability, affordability, and ease of production. Owing to these notable benefits, they are considered to possess considerable potential in anticancer and antiviral therapy, flavor enhancers in oriental foods, biosensors and in the production of a nutraceutical theanine. This review also aims to fully explore the potential of microbial glutaminases and to set the pace for future prospects.

Recombinant l-glutaminase obtained from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans DSM-465: characterization and in silico elucidation of conserved structural domains

Glutaminase (GLS) is an enzyme essential for amino acid metabolism; in particular, it acts as a catalyst in glutaminolysis, a reaction exploited by the malignant cells to meet the nutrient requirements for their accelerated growth and proliferation. Via regulating the initial reaction of the glutaminolysis pathway, glutaminase offers an intriguing target for the development of anticancer drugs. In the present study, we produced a recombinant glutaminase from Geobacillus thermodenitrificans DSM-465 in E. coli. The enzyme was purified to electrophoretic homogeneity, with 40% recovery and 22.36 fold purity. It exhibited a molecular weight of 33 kDa, with an optimum pH and temperature of 9 and 70 °C, respectively. The K M value of the purified enzyme was 104 μM for l-glutamine. A 3D model was built for the enzyme using Swiss-Model and subjected to molecular docking with the substrate and potential inhibitors. Moreover, the subject enzyme was compared with the human kidney type GLS-K by ConSurf and TM-align servers for evolutionary conserved residues and structural domains. Despite having less than 40% amino acid identity, the superimposed monomers of both enzymes exhibited ∼94% structural identity. With a positional difference, the active site residues Ser65, Asn117, Glu162, Asn169, Tyr193, Tyr245, and Val263 found in the bacterial enzyme were also conserved in the human GLS-K. Molecular docking results have shown that CB-839 is the best inhibitor for GLS-GT and UPGL00004 is the best inhibitor for GLS-K, as designated by the binding free energy changes, i.e. ΔG -388.7 kJ mol-1 and ΔG -375 kJ mol-1, respectively. Moreover, six potential inhibitory molecules were ranked according to their binding free energy change values for both enzymes. The information can be used for the in vivo anticancer studies.

Functional and structural characterization of four glutaminases from Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis

Glutaminases belong to the large superfamily of serine-dependent beta-lactamases and penicillin-binding proteins, and they catalyze the hydrolytic deamidation of L-glutamine to L-glutamate. In this work, we purified and biochemically characterized four predicted glutaminases from Escherichia coli (YbaS and YneH) and Bacillus subtilis (YlaM and YbgJ). The proteins demonstrated strict specificity to L-glutamine and did not hydrolyze D-glutamine or L-asparagine. In each organism, one glutaminase showed higher affinity to glutamine ( E. coli YbaS and B. subtilis YlaM; K m 7.3 and 7.6 mM, respectively) than the second glutaminase ( E. coli YneH and B. subtilis YbgJ; K m 27.6 and 30.6 mM, respectively). The crystal structures of the E. coli YbaS and the B. subtilis YbgJ revealed the presence of a classical beta-lactamase-like fold and conservation of several key catalytic residues of beta-lactamases (Ser74, Lys77, Asn126, Lys268, and Ser269 in YbgJ). Alanine replacement mutagenesis demonstrated that most of the conserved residues located in the putative glutaminase catalytic site are essential for activity. The crystal structure of the YbgJ complex with the glutaminase inhibitor 6-diazo-5-oxo- l-norleucine revealed the presence of a covalent bond between the inhibitor and the hydroxyl oxygen of Ser74, providing evidence that Ser74 is the primary catalytic nucleophile and that the glutaminase reaction proceeds through formation of an enzyme-glutamyl intermediate. Growth experiments with the E. coli glutaminase deletion strains revealed that YneH is involved in the assimilation of l-glutamine as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen and suggested that both glutaminases (YbaS and YneH) also contribute to acid resistance in E. coli.

Expression of functional human glutaminase in baculovirus system: Affinity purification, kinetic and molecular characterization

Glutaminase catalyzes the hydrolysis of glutamine yielding stoichiometric amounts of glutamate plus ammonium ions. In mammals, there are two different genes encoding for glutaminase, known as liver (L) and kidney (K) types. The human L-type isoform expressed in baculovirus yielded functional recombinant enzyme in Sf9 insect cells. A novel affinity chromatography method, based on its specific interaction with a PDZ protein, was developed for purification. Kinetic constants were determined for the purified human isozyme, which showed an allosteric behaviour for glutamine, with a Hill index of 2.7 and S(0.5) values of 32 and 64 mM for high and low P(i) concentrations, respectively. Whereas the protein showed a low P(i) dependence typical for L-type glutaminases, the enzyme was unexpectedly inhibited by glutamate, a kinetic characteristic exclusive of K-type isozymes, and was slightly activated by ammonia, unlike the classical liver enzymes which show an absolute dependence on ammonia. Subcellular fractionation demonstrates that recombinant human glutaminase was targeted to both mitochondria and nucleus, and in both locations the protein was catalytically active. This is the first report of the expression of a functional L-type mammalian glutaminase enzyme. The study also provides a simple and efficient method for affinity purification of the recombinant enzyme. Moreover, the data imply that this human enzyme may represent a new isoform different from classical kidney and liver isozymes.

Regulation of transcription and activity of Rhizobium etli glutaminase A

The present study determines the regulatory mechanisms that operate on Rhizobium etli glutaminase A. glsA gene expression levels were evaluated under several metabolic conditions by fusions of the glsA gene promoter and the transcriptional reporter cassette uidA2-aad. glsA expression was directly correlated to the glutaminase A activity found under the tested growth conditions, reaching its maximum level in the presence of glutamine and during exponential growth phase. Glutamine induces glsA expression. The influence of allosteric metabolites on glutaminase A activity was also determined. The purified enzyme was inhibited by 2-oxoglutarate and pyruvate, whereas oxaloacetate and glyoxylate modulate it positively. Glutaminase A is not inhibited by glutamate and is activated by ammonium. Glutaminase A participates in an ATP-consuming cycle where glutamine is continually degraded and resynthesized by glutamine synthetase (GS). GS and glutaminase A activities appear simultaneously during bacterial growth under different metabolic conditions and their control mechanisms are not reciprocal. Slight overproduction in glutaminase A expression causes a reduction in growth yield and a dramatic decrease in bacterial growth. We propose a model for regulation of glutaminase A, and discuss its contribution to glutamine cycle regulation.

Expression of recombinant human L-glutaminase in Escherichia coli: polyclonal antibodies production and immunological analysis of mouse tissues

The first complete sequence of human L-glutaminase was deduced from breast cancer glutaminase cDNA cloned in our laboratory. This cDNA clone has now been engineered to synthesize both precursor and mature forms of the protein in Escherichia coli. Among several different plasmid constructions, the expression system based on phage T7 promoter (vector pET-3c) was found to be the most efficient for glutaminase overproduction. Upon induction, precursor glutaminase accounts for about 25% of total E. coli protein, whereas a lower amount (12%) was achieved for the putative mature protein. The optimal length of the translational spacer on the ribosome binding site was shown to be eight nucleotides. However, using this length of spacer, we were unable to obtain expression in the pQE vector, tagged with a 6x His sequence at the NH(2)-terminus, stressing the importance of the 5'-coding sequence in the expression efficiency. Although the precursor and mature recombinant forms of glutaminase were devoid of catalytic activity, the purified protein allowed us to obtain highly specific polyclonal antibodies, as shown by immunoblot analysis of mouse tissues. Furthermore, the antibodies were able to immunoprecipitate the in vitro translated enzyme using a reticulocyte lysate system; these antibodies might be a valuable tool for studies on L-glutaminase expression in mammalian tissues.

Purification and characterisation of a glutaminase from Debaryomyces spp

A glutaminase was purified from the cell-free extract of Debaryomyces spp. CECT 11815 by protamine sulphate treatment and several chromatographic procedures including anion exchange chromatography and gel filtration. The purified enzyme consisted of two subunits, with molecular masses of 65 and 50 kDa, respectively. Activity was optimal at 40 degrees C and pH 8.5, and the Km value for L-glutamine was 4.5 mM. The glutaminase exhibited activity against L-gamma-Glu-methyl ester, L-gamma-Glu-hydrazide, and L-albiziin, while L-asparagine, CBZ-L-Gln, CBZ-L-Gln-Gly, glutathione, L-gamma-Glu-pNA and L-gamma-Glu-AMC were not hydrolysed. The enzyme was not affected by PMSF, DTT and EDTA. However, the enzyme was inhibited by sulfhydryl group reagents, DON, L-albizziin, L-asparagine and high concentrations of L-glutamine and ammonium, while L-aspartate did not affect the activity. Phosphate and acetate did not produce any significant effect on the glutaminase activity, but it was slightly stimulated by lactate and borate.