Extracellular poly(alpha-L-guluronate)lyase from Corynebacterium sp.: purification, characteristics, and conformational properties

Sulfated steroids of Halichondriidae family sponges - Natural inhibitors of polysaccharide-degrading enzymes of bacterium Formosa algae, inhabiting brown alga Fucus evanescens

Inhibiting effects of sulfated steroids from marine sponges of Halichondriidae family: halistanol sulfate, topsentiasterol sulfate D and chlorotopsentiasterol sulfate D were investigated on three different types of enzymes degrading polysaccharides of brown algae: endo-1,3-β-d-glucanase GFA, fucoidan hydrolase FFA2 and bifunctional alginate lyase ALFA3 from marine bacterium Formosa algae KMM 3553T, inhabiting thalli of brown alga Fucus evanescens. This is the first research, devoted to influence of a marine natural compound on three functionally related enzymes that make up the complex of enzymes, necessary to degrade unique carbohydrate components of brown algae. Alginic acid, 1,3-β-D-glucan (laminaran) and fucoidan jointly constitute practically all carbohydrate biomass of brown algae, so enzymes, able to degrade such polysaccharides, are crucial for digesting brown algae biomass as well as for organisms surviving and proliferating on brown algae thalli. Halistanol sulfate irreversibly inhibited native endo-1,3-β-D-glucanases of marine mollusks, but reversibly competitively inhibited recombinant endo-1,3-β-d-glucanase GFA. This fact indicates that there are significant structural differences between the enzymes of practically the same specificity. For alginate lyase and fucoidan hydrolase halistanol sulfate was irreversible inhibitor. Topsentiasterol sulfate D was less active inhibitor whereas chlorotopsentiasterol sulfate D was the strongest inhibitor of enzymes under the study. Chlorotopsentiasterol sulfate D caused 98% irreversible inhibition of GFA. Chlorotopsentiasterol sulfate D also caused reversible and 100% inhibition of ALFA3, which is unusual for reversible inhibitors. Inhibition of FFA2 was complete and irreversible in all cases.

Alginate lyases from alginate-degrading Vibrio splendidus 12B01 are endolytic

Alginate lyases are enzymes that degrade alginate through β-elimination of the glycosidic bond into smaller oligomers. We investigated the alginate lyases from Vibrio splendidus 12B01, a marine bacterioplankton species that can grow on alginate as its sole carbon source. We identified, purified, and characterized four polysaccharide lyase family 7 alginates lyases, AlyA, AlyB, AlyD, and AlyE, from V. splendidus 12B01. The four lyases were found to have optimal activity between pH 7.5 and 8.5 and at 20 to 25°C, consistent with their use in a marine environment. AlyA, AlyB, AlyD, and AlyE were found to exhibit a turnover number (kcat) for alginate of 0.60 ± 0.02 s(-1), 3.7 ± 0.3 s(-1), 4.5 ± 0.5 s(-1), and 7.1 ± 0.2 s(-1), respectively. The Km values of AlyA, AlyB, AlyD, and AlyE toward alginate were 36 ± 7 μM, 22 ± 5 μM, 60 ± 2 μM, and 123 ± 6 μM, respectively. AlyA and AlyB were found principally to cleave the β-1,4 bonds between β-d-mannuronate and α-l-guluronate and subunits; AlyD and AlyE were found to principally cleave the α-1,4 bonds involving α-l-guluronate subunits. The four alginate lyases degrade alginate into longer chains of oligomers.

Characterization of a new alginate lyase from newly isolated Flavobacterium sp. S20

Alginate lyase is a promising biocatalyst because of its application in saccharification of alginate for the production of biochemicals and renewable biofuels. This study described the isolation of a new alginate metabolizing bacterium, Flavobacterium sp. S20, from sludge samples and the characterization of its alginate lyase Alg2A. The alginate lyase gene, alg2A, was obtained by constructing and screening the genomic library of the strain S20 and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Substrate specificity assays indicated Alg2A preferred poly-α-L-guluronate as a substrate over poly-β-D-mannuronate. In the saccharification process of a high content (10 %, w/v) of sodium alginate, the recombinant alginate lyase Alg2A yielded 152 of mM the reducing sugars after 69 h of reaction, and the amounts of oligosaccharides with a different degree of polymerization (DP) generated by Alg2A gradually accumulated without significant variation in the distribution of oligosaccharide compositions. These results indicated that Alg2A possessed high enzymatic capability for saccharifying the alginate, which could be used in saccharifying the alginate biomass prior to the main fermentation process for biofuels. In addition, Alg2A had a different endolytic reaction mode from both the two commercial alginate lyases and other alginate lyases from polysaccharide lyase family 7 owing to high yields of penta-, hex-, and hepta-saccharides in the hydrolysis products of Alg2A. Thus, Alg2A could be a good tool for the large-scale preparation of alginate oligosaccharides with high DP.

Isolation of mutant alginate lyases with cleavage specificity for di-guluronic acid linkages

Alginates are commercially valuable and complex polysaccharides composed of varying amounts and distribution patterns of 1-4-linked β-D-mannuronic acid (M) and α-L-guluronic acid (G). This structural variability strongly affects polymer physicochemical properties and thereby both commercial applications and biological functions. One promising approach to alginate fine structure elucidation involves the use of alginate lyases, which degrade the polysaccharide by cleaving the glycosidic linkages through a β-elimination reaction. For such studies one would ideally like to have different lyases, each of which cleaves only one of the four possible linkages in alginates: G-G, G-M, M-G, and M-M. So far no lyase specific for only G-G linkages has been described, and here we report the construction of such an enzyme by mutating the gene encoding Klebsiella pneumoniae lyase AlyA (a polysaccharide lyase family 7 lyase), which cleaves both G-G and G-M linkages. After error-prone PCR mutagenesis and high throughput screening of ∼7000 lyase mutants, enzyme variants with a strongly improved G-G specificity were identified. Furthermore, in the absence of Ca(2+), one of these lyases (AlyA5) was found to display no detectable activity against G-M linkages. G-G linkages were cleaved with ∼10% of the optimal activity under the same conditions. The substitutions conferring altered specificity to the mutant enzymes are located in conserved regions in the polysaccharide lyase family 7 alginate lyases. Structure-function analyses by comparison with the known three-dimensional structure of Sphingomonas sp. A1 lyase A1-II' suggests that the improved G-G specificity might be caused by increased affinity for nonproductive binding of the alternating G-M structure.

A new high-alkaline alginate lyase from a deep-sea bacterium Agarivorans sp

A high-alkaline, salt-activated alginate lyase is produced by Agarivorans sp. JAM-A1m from a deep-sea sediment off Cape Nomamisaki on Kyushu Island, Japan. Purified to homogeneity, as judged by SDS-PAGE, the enzyme (A1m) had a molecular mass of approximately 31 kDa. The optimal pH was around 10 in glycine-NaOH buffer, and the activity was increased to 1.8 times by adding 0.2 M NaCl. However, when the optimal pH in the presence of 0.2 M NaCl was shifted to pH 9.0, the activity was more than 10 times compared with that at pH 9 in the absence of NaCl. A1m showed the optimal temperature at around 30 degrees C and was stable to incubation between pH 6 and 9. The enzyme degraded favorably mannuronate-guluronate and guluronate-rich fragments in alginate. Shotgun cloning and sequencing of the gene for A1m revealed a 930-bp open reading frame, which encoded a mature enzyme of 289 amino acids (32,295 Da) belonging to polysaccharide lyase family 7. The deduced amino acid sequence showed the highest similarity to that of a Klebsiella enzyme, with only 54% identity.

Purification and characterization of alginate lyase from marine Vibrio sp. YWA

Extracellular alginate lyase secreted by marine Vibrio sp. YWA, isolated from decayed Laminaria japonica, was purified by a combination of ammonium sulfate precipitation and diethylaminoethyl-Sephacel column chromatography. The results show that the molecular mass of alginate lyase was approximately 62.5 kDa, with an optimal pH and temperature at pH 7.0 and 25 degrees C, respectively. K(m) was approximately 72.73 g/L. The activity of the enzyme was enhanced by EDTA and Zn(2+), but inhibited by Ba(2+). The substrates specificity analysis shows that it was specific for hydrolyzing poly-beta-D-1,4-mannuronate in alginate.

Purification and characterization of an alginate lyase from marine Bacterium Vibrio sp. mutant strain 510-64

Marine Vibrio sp. 510 was chosen as a parent strain for screening high producers of alginate lyase using the complex mutagenesis of Ethyl Methanesulphonate and UV radiation treatments. The mutant strain Vibrio sp. 510-64 was selected and its alginate lyase activity was increased by 3.87-fold (reaching 46.12 EU/mg) over that of the parent strain. An extracellular alginate lyase was purified from Vibrio sp. 510-64 cultural supernatant by successive fractionation on DEAE Sepharose FF and two steps of Superdex 75. The purified enzyme yielded a single band on SDS-PAGE with the molecular weight of 34.6 kDa. Data of the N-terminal amino acid sequence indicated that this protein might be a novel alginate lyase. The substrate specificity results demonstrated that the alginate lyase had the specificity for poly G block.

A Structural Basis for Depolymerization of Alginate by Polysaccharide Lyase Family-7

Alginate lyases depolymerize alginate, a heteropolysaccharide consisting of alpha-L-guluronate and beta-D-mannuronate, through a beta-elimination reaction. Their structure/function relationships are expected to provide information valuable to future industrial alginate processing and drug design for Pseudomonas aeruginosa alginate biofilm-dependent infection, but much remains unknown. Here, we present the crystal structure at 1.0 A resolution and the results of mutational analysis of Sphingomonas sp. A1 alginate lyase A1-II', which is grouped into the polysaccharide lyase (PL) family-7. The overall structure of A1-II' uses a beta-sandwich fold, and it has a large active cleft covered by two short flexible loops. Comparison with other family PL-7 structures indicated that loop opening is necessary for substrate binding when the catalytic reaction is initiated. In contrast to the disorder in many side-chains on the protein surface, the three adjacent beta-strands at the center of the active cleft are well ordered. This results from hydrogen bond networks and stacking-like associations identical with those in other family PL-7 structures. Disruption of these interactions by site-directed mutagenesis (R146A, E148A, R150A, Q189A, and K280A) makes the protein insoluble or greatly decreases its activity. The A1-II' structure includes two sulfate ions in the active cleft. Ammonium sulfate was a potent inhibitor with a Ki of 2.5 mM, indicating that our structure represents a model of the inhibitory state. Results of mutational analysis and continuous hydrogen bond networks suggest that Arg146, Gln189, His191, and Tyr284 form an active center. Tyr284OH appears particularly crucial to the catalytic reaction, which is supported by sulfate ion binding and the proximity to the C5 and O4 atoms of subsite +1 in the model obtained by energy minimization calculations using tri-mannuronate. The structural basis shown by this study is similar in many respects to that of the family PL-5 enzymes.

Crystal Structure of the Alginate (Poly α-l-guluronate) Lyase from Corynebacterium sp. at 1.2Å Resolution

The crystal structure of alginate (poly alpha-l-guluronate) lyase from Corynebacterium sp. (ALY-1) was determined at 1.2A resolution using the MAD method and bromide ions. The structure of ALY-1 is abundant in beta-strands and has a deep cleft, similar to the jellyroll beta-sandwich found in 1,3-1,4-beta-glucanase. The structure suggests that alginate molecules may penetrate into the cleft to interact with the catalytic site of ALY-1. The reported crystal structure of another type of alginate lyase, A1-III, differs from that of ALY-1 in that it consists almost entirely of alpha-helical structure. Nevertheless, the putative catalytic residues in both enzymes are positioned in space in nearly identical arrangements. This finding suggests that both alginate lyases may have evolved through convergent evolution.

Structure and Function of a Hypothetical Pseudomonas aeruginosa Protein PA1167 Classified into Family PL-7

Structural and functional analyses of alginate lyases are important in the clarification of the biofilm-dependent ecosystem in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and in the development of therapeutic agents for bacterial disease. Most alginate lyases are classified into polysaccharide lyase (PL) family-5 and -7 based on their primary structures. Family PL-7 enzymes are still poorly characterized especially in structural properties. Among family PL-7, a gene coding for a hypothetical protein (PA1167) homologous to Sphingomonas alginate lyase A1-II was found to be present in the P. aeruginosa genome. PA1167 overexpressed in Escherichia coli cleaved glycosidic bonds in alginate and released unsaturated saccharides, indicating that PA1167 is an alginate lyase catalyzing a beta-elimination reaction. The enzyme acted preferably on heteropolymeric regions endolytically and worked most efficiently at pH 8.5 and 40 degrees C. The specific activity of PA1167, however, was much weaker than that of the known alginate lyase AlgL, suggesting that AlgL plays a main role in alginate depolymerization in P. aeruginosa. In addition to this specific activity, differences were found between PA1167 and AlgL in enzyme properties such as molecular mass, optimum pH, salt effect, and substrate specificity. The first crystal structure of the family PL-7 alginate lyase was determined at 2.0 A resolution. PA1167 was found to form a glove-like beta-sandwich composed of 15 beta-strands and 3 alpha-helices. The structural difference between the beta-sandwich PA1167 of family PL-7 and alpha/alpha-barrel AlgL of family PL-5 may be responsible for the enzyme characteristics. Crystal structures of polysaccharide lyases determined so far indicate that they can be assigned to three folding groups having parallel beta-helix, alpha/alpha-barrel, and alpha/alpha-barrel + antiparallel beta-sheet structures as basic frames. PA1167 is the fourth novel folding structure found among polysaccharide lyases.

ALGINATE LYASE: review of major sources and enzyme characteristics, structure-function analysis, biological roles, and applications

Alginate lyases, characterized as either mannuronate (EC 4.2.2.3) or guluronate lyases (EC 4.2.2.11), catalyze the degradation of alginate, a complex copolymer of alpha-L-guluronate and its C5 epimer beta-D-mannuronate. Lyases have been isolated from a wide range of organisms, including algae, marine invertebrates, and marine and terrestrial microorganisms. This review catalogs the major characteristics of these lyases, the methods for analyzing these enzymes, as well as their biological roles. Analysis of primary sequence data identifies some markedly conserved motifs that should help elucidate functional domains. Information about the three-dimensional structure of a mannuronate lyase from Sphingomonas sp., combined with various mutagenesis studies, has identified residues that are important for catalytic activity in several lyases. Characterization of alginate lyases will enhance and expand the use of these enzymes to engineer novel alginate polymers for applications in various industrial, agricultural, and medical fields. In this review, we explore both past and present applications of this important enzyme and discuss its future prospects.

Structural and functional comparison of polysaccharide-degrading enzymes

Sugar molecules as well as enzymes degrading them are ubiquitously present in physiological systems, especially for vertebrates. Polysaccharides have at least two aspects to their function, one due to their mechanical properties and the second one involves multiple regulatory processes or interactions between molecules, cells, or extracellular space. Various bacteria exert exogenous pressures on their host organism to diversity glycans and their structures in order for the host organism to evade the destructive function of such microbes. Many bacterial organism produce glycan-degrading enzymes in order to facilitate their invasion of host tissues. Such polysaccharide degrading enzymes utilize mainly two modes of polysaccharide-degradation, a hydrolysis and a beta-elimination process. The three-dimensional structures of several of these enzymes have been elucidated recently using X-ray crystallography. There are many common structural motifs among these enzymes, mainly the presence of an elongated cleft transversing these molecules which functions as a polysaccharide substrate binding site as well as the catalytic site for these enzymes. The detailed structural information obtained about these enzymes allowed formulation of proposed mechanisms of their action. The polysaccharide lyases utilize a proton acceptance and donation mechanism (PAD), whereas polysaccharide hydrolases use a direct double displacement (DD) mechanism to degrade their substrates.

Purification and characterization of bifunctional alginate lyase from Alteromonas sp. strain no. 272 and its action on saturated oligomeric substrates

A marine bacterium (strain No. 272) isolated from sea mud in Omura Bay produced an alginate lyase and was classified as an Alteromonas species. The enzyme was purified from the culture medium of the bacterium by DEAE-Cellulofine, Sephadex G-100 gel chromatography to an electrophoretically homogeneous state in the presence and absence of SDS. The molecular mass of the enzyme was 23 and 33.9 kDa on Sephadex G-100 column chromatography and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, respectively, with an isoelectric point of 3.8. The predominant secondary structure of the enzyme was found to be most likely beta-structure by circular dichroism. The enzyme was most active at pH 7.5-8.0 and stable around pH 5-11. The enzyme was more labile in Tris-HCI buffer (pH 7.0) to heat treatment, than in phosphate buffer (pH 7.0). No of metal ions significantly affected the enzyme activity. The enzyme acted on sodium alginate in an endo-type manner and on two components of alginate, poly-alpha1,4-L-guluronate and poly-beta1,4-D-mannuronate, as judged by routine ultraviolet assay (235 nm) and circular dichroic spectral changes of the substrates. However, the coexisting poly-alpha1,4-L-guluronate and poly-beta1,4-D-mannuronate apparently interacted with the enzyme in a competitive manner. Although the enzyme depolymerized alginate in an endo-type, it did not act on trimeric guluronate and mannuronate, but on the tetramers or more. The kinetic analyses showed that kcat/Km for each oligomer was larger for the guluronate oligomers than for the mannuronate ones, and that the subsite structure of the enzyme most likely consisted of six binding sites from the intrinsic reaction rate constant (kint) and intrinsic substrate binding constant (Kint).

Cloning and sequence analysis of a gene (aly PG) encoding poly(α-l-guluronate)lyase from Corynebacterium sp. strain ALY-1

The aly PG gene, coding for a poly alpha-l-guluronate lyase (PG lyase) of Corynebacterium strain ALY-1, was cloned and sequenced. The gene consists of 768 bp encoding a signal peptide of 32 amino acids and a mature protein of 224 amino acids. Two disulfide bond cross-linkages were found to be formed between Cys-4 and Cys-51 and between Cys-200 and Cys-206 in the native PG lyase molecule. The deduced amino acid sequence of the Corynebacterium sp. aly PG gene exhibited 29% homology toward that of the Klebsiella pneumoniae, subsp. aerogenes aly A gene, with two conserved regions (the amino acid sequences from Y-102 to M-110 and from Y-221 to Q-229).

Crystal structure of alginate lyase A1-III from Sphingomonas species A1 at 1.78 A resolution

The three-dimensional structure of alginate lyase A1-III (ALYIII) from a Sphingomonas species A1 was determined by X-ray crystallography. The enzyme was crystallized by the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method in the presence of 49% ammonium sulfate at 20 degrees C. The crystals are monoclinic and belong to the space group C2 with unit cell dimensions of a=49.18 A, b=93.08 A, c=82.10 A and beta=104.12 degrees. There was one molecule of alginate lyase in the asymmetric unit of the crystal. The diffraction data up to 1. 71 A were collected with Rsymof 5.0%. The crystal structure of ALYIII was solved by the multiple isomorphous replacement method and refined at 1.78 A resolution using X-PLOR with a final R -factor of 18.0% for 10.0 to 1.78 A resolution data. The refined model of ALYIII contained 351 amino acid residues, 299 water molecules and two sulfate ions. The three-dimensional structure of ALYIII was abundant in helices and had a deep tunnel-like cleft in a novel (alpha6/alpha5)-barrel structure, which was similar to the (alpha6/alpha6)-barrel found in glucoamylase and cellulase. This structure presented the possibility that alginate molecules might penetrate into the cleft to interact with the catalytic site of ALYIII.

Oligosaccharide recognition signals and defence reactions in marine plant-microbe interactions

Recent findings on the involvement of oligosaccharide signals in pathogen recognition and defence reactions in marine algae shine a new light on the ecology of their interactions with associated microorganisms. Since the marine environment encompasses lineages that have diverged a long time ago from the terrestrial phyla, these results suggest that cell-cell recognition pathways typical of terrestrial plants appeared very early in the evolution of eukaryotes. Production of oligosaccharides from marine algae using microbial recombinant polysaccharidases is also of industrial interest as plants can be protected from infections by preincubation in the presence of appropriate signals that mimic the attacks by pathogens.