Purification and biochemical characterization of a novel thermoactive fungal pectate lyase from Penicillium occitanis

Biochemical Characterization of a Pectate Lyase AnPL9 from Aspergillus nidulans

Pectinolytic enzymes have diverse industrial applications. Among these, pectate lyases act on the internal α-1,4-linkage of the pectate backbone, playing a critical role in pectin degradation. While most pectate lyases characterized thus far are of bacterial origin, fungi can also be excellent sources of pectinolytic enzymes. In this study, we performed biochemical characterization of the pectate lyase AnPL9 belonging to the polysaccharide lyase family 9 (PL9) from the filamentous fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Recombinant AnPL9 was produced using a Pichia pastoris expression system and purified. AnPL9 exhibited high activity on homogalacturonan (HG), pectin from citrus peel, pectin from apple, and the HG region in rhamnogalacturonan-I. Although digalacturonic acid and trigalacturonic acid were not degraded by AnPL9, tetragalacturonic acid was converted to 4,5-unsaturated digalacturonic acid and digalacturonic acid. These results indicate that AnPL9 degrades HG oligosaccharides with a degree of polymerization > 4. Furthermore, AnPL9 was stable within a neutral-to-alkaline pH range (pH 6.0-11.0). Our findings suggest that AnPL9 is a candidate pectate lyase for biotechnological applications in the food, paper, and textile industries. This is the first report on a fungal pectate lyase belonging to the PL9 family.

Pectinolytic lyases: a comprehensive review of sources, category, property, structure, and catalytic mechanism of pectate lyases and pectin lyases

Pectate lyases and pectin lyases have essential roles in various biotechnological applications, such as textile industry, paper making, pectic wastewater pretreatment, juice clarification and oil extraction. They can effectively cleave the α-1,4-glycosidic bond of pectin molecules back bone by β-elimination reaction to produce pectin oligosaccharides. In this way, it will not generate highly toxic methanol and has the advantages of good enzymatic selectivity, less by-products, mild reaction conditions and high efficiency. However, numerous researches have been done for several decades; there are still no comprehensive reviews to summarize the recent advances of pectate lyases and pectin lyases. This review tries to fill this gap by providing all relevant information, including the substrate, origin, biochemical properties, sequence analysis, mode of action, the three-dimensional structure and catalytic mechanism.

Production and Thermal Characterization of an Alkaline Pectin Lyase from Penicillium notatum

The present study was aimed to investigate the potential of Penicillium notatum for the production of pectin lyase under solid state culture using wheat bran as substrate. Different process parameters were optimized using completely randomized design for enhanced production of the pectin lyase. P. notatum showed maximum production (1875 U/gds) of pectin lyase with substrate amount 15 g/250 ml, moisture level 60%, pH 6, incubation period 120 h at 30°C. Pectin lyase activity was further improved with the addition of maltose and ammonium sulphate as carbon and nitrogen additives (1%), respectively. Partial purification of enzyme was carried out by ammonium sulphate precipitation at 80% saturation level. The P. notatum pectin lyase showed maximal activity at 65°C and pH 8. Km and Vmax values were 0.29% and 0.487 µmol/min, respectively. Energy of activation was found to be 5.33 kJ/mol. A detailed kinetic study of thermal inactivation was carried out. The results showed that pectin lyase exhibited resistance against thermal unfolding. Effect of various metals on pectin lyase activity was also investigated. All the metals showed inhibitory effect on the enzyme activity. The present investigation revealed that pectin lyase isolated from P. notatum is thermally stable and alkaline in nature.

Cloning and heterologous expression of a thermostable pectate lyase from Penicillium occitanis in Escherichia coli

The entire pectate lyase cDNA (Pel1) of Penicillium occitanis was cloned from a cDNA bank and sequenced. The ORF exhibited a great homology to Penicillium marneffei and conservation of all features of fungal pectate lyases such as the barrel structure with "eight right-handed parallel β-helix" architecture. The structure modeling also showed the interesting resemblance with thermostable pectate lyases since several specific residues were also shared by Pel1 and these thermostable enzymes. Having shown that the enzyme retains its activity after endoH-mediated deglycosylation, we investigated its expression in Escherichia coli BL21 using the pET28-a vector. This expression was shown to be optimum when cells were induced at room temperature in 2YT medium rather than at 37 °C and LB medium. In such conditions, the recombinant protein was apparently produced more in soluble form than as inclusion bodies. The effect of NaCl concentration was investigated during the binding and elution steps of recombinant His-tagged enzyme on MagneHis Ni-particles. The purified enzyme was shown to retain its thermo-activity as well as a great tolerance to high concentration of NaCl and imidazole.

Studies on the zymogram method for the detection of pectinolytic activities using CTAB

Zymogram analysis is a useful tool for the identification of several enzymes. The present study was undertaken to investigate the efficiency gains from the characterization of pectic enzymes on zymograms by staining of pectin-agarose overlays using cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide also known as cetrimide or CTAB. The method is based on the fact that the enzymatic hydrolysis of the pectic substrates included in the agarose matrix gel inhibited their precipitation by CTAB, leading to the appearance of cleared zones in front of the pectin hydrolases and lyases. Conversely, esterases led to the increase of pectin precipitation. Fungal pectinolytic enzymes were separated on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and subjected to the zymogram detection technique, using two pectin substances, namely citrus pectin and polygalacturonic acid. Overall, the findings presented in the current study indicate that several elements (ions, salts, pH, temperature, chelators, and reducing agents) may significantly affect the results of zymogram analysis and can, therefore, be employed to enhance the discriminatory and operational potential of the analysis in terms of accurate discrimination between several pectinolytic activities involved and effective implementation of the purification procedures required in the process.