Discovery and Biotechnological Exploitation of Glycoside-Phosphorylases

Among carbohydrate active enzymes, glycoside phosphorylases (GPs) are valuable catalysts for white biotechnologies, due to their exquisite capacity to efficiently re-modulate oligo- and poly-saccharides, without the need for costly activated sugars as substrates. The reversibility of the phosphorolysis reaction, indeed, makes them attractive tools for glycodiversification. However, discovery of new GP functions is hindered by the difficulty in identifying them in sequence databases, and, rather, relies on extensive and tedious biochemical characterization studies. Nevertheless, recent advances in automated tools have led to major improvements in GP mining, activity predictions, and functional screening. Implementation of GPs into innovative in vitro and in cellulo bioproduction strategies has also made substantial advances. Herein, we propose to discuss the latest developments in the strategies employed to efficiently discover GPs and make the best use of their exceptional catalytic properties for glycoside bioproduction.

Discovery of a Kojibiose Hydrolase by Analysis of Specificity-Determining Correlated Positions in Glycoside Hydrolase Family 65

The Glycoside Hydrolase Family 65 (GH65) is an enzyme family of inverting α-glucoside phosphorylases and hydrolases that currently contains 10 characterized enzyme specificities. However, its sequence diversity has never been studied in detail. Here, an in-silico analysis of correlated mutations was performed, revealing specificity-determining positions that facilitate annotation of the family’s phylogenetic tree. By searching these positions for amino acid motifs that do not match those found in previously characterized enzymes from GH65, several clades that may harbor new functions could be identified. Three enzymes from across these regions were expressed in E. coli and their substrate profile was mapped. One of those enzymes, originating from the bacterium Mucilaginibacter mallensis, was found to hydrolyze kojibiose and α-1,2-oligoglucans with high specificity. We propose kojibiose glucohydrolase as the systematic name and kojibiose hydrolase or kojibiase as the short name for this new enzyme. This work illustrates a convenient strategy for mapping the natural diversity of enzyme families and smartly mining the ever-growing number of available sequences in the quest for novel specificities.

Engineering of a Thermostable Biocatalyst for the Synthesis of 2-O-Glucosylglycerol

2‐O‐Glucosylglycerol is accumulated by various bacteria and plants in response to environmental stress. It is widely applied as a bioactive moisturising ingredient in skin care products, for which it is manufactured via enzymatic glucosylation of glycerol by the sucrose phosphorylase from Leuconostoc mesenteroides. This industrial process is operated at room temperature due to the mediocre stability of the biocatalyst, often leading to microbial contamination. The highly thermostable sucrose phosphorylase from Bifidobacterium adolescentis could be a better alternative in that regard, but this enzyme is not fit for production of 2‐O‐glucosylglycerol due to its low regioselectivity and poor affinity for glycerol. In this work, the thermostable phosphorylase was engineered to alleviate these problems. Several engineering approaches were explored, ranging from site‐directed mutagenesis to conventional, binary, iterative or combinatorial randomisation of the active site, resulting in the screening of ∼3,900 variants. Variant P134Q displayed a 21‐fold increase in catalytic efficiency for glycerol, as well as a threefold improvement in regioselectivity towards the 2‐position of the substrate, while retaining its activity for several days at elevated temperatures.

Analysis of the diversity of the glycoside hydrolase family 130 in mammal gut microbiomes reveals a novel mannoside-phosphorylase function

Mannoside phosphorylases are involved in the intracellular metabolization of mannooligosaccharides, and are also useful enzymes for the in vitro synthesis of oligosaccharides. They are found in glycoside hydrolase family GH130. Here we report on an analysis of 6308 GH130 sequences, including 4714 from the human, bovine, porcine and murine microbiomes. Using sequence similarity networks, we divided the diversity of sequences into 15 mostly isofunctional meta-nodes; of these, 9 contained no experimentally characterized member. By examining the multiple sequence alignments in each meta-node, we predicted the determinants of the phosphorolytic mechanism and linkage specificity. We thus hypothesized that eight uncharacterized meta-nodes would be phosphorylases. These sequences are characterized by the absence of signal peptides and of the catalytic base. Those sequences with the conserved E/K, E/R and Y/R pairs of residues involved in substrate binding would target β-1,2-, β-1,3- and β-1,4-linked mannosyl residues, respectively. These predictions were tested by characterizing members of three of the uncharacterized meta-nodes from gut bacteria. We discovered the first known β-1,4-mannosyl-glucuronic acid phosphorylase, which targets a motif of the Shigella lipopolysaccharide O-antigen. This work uncovers a reliable strategy for the discovery of novel mannoside-phosphorylases, reveals possible interactions between gut bacteria, and identifies a biotechnological tool for the synthesis of antigenic oligosaccharides.

Short-Chain Cello-oligosaccharides: Intensification and Scale-up of Their Enzymatic Production and Selective Growth Promotion among Probiotic Bacteria

Short-chain cello-oligosaccharides (COS; degree of polymerization, DP ≤ 6) are promising water-soluble dietary fibers. An efficient approach to their bottom-up synthesis is from sucrose and glucose using glycoside phosphorylases. Here, we show the intensification and scale up (20 mL; gram scale) of COS production to 93 g/L product and in 82 mol % yield from sucrose (0.5 M). The COS were comprised of DP 3 (33 wt %), DP 4 (34 wt %), DP 5 (24 wt %), and DP 6 (9 wt %) and involved minimal loss (≤10 mol %) to insoluble fractions. After isolation (≥95% purity; ≥90% yield), the COS were examined for growth promotion of probiotic strains. Benchmarked against inulin, trans-galacto-oligosaccharides, and cellobiose, COS showed up to 4.1-fold stimulation of cell density for Clostridium butyricum, Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Lactobacillus paracasei subsp. paracasei, and Lactobacillus rhamnosus but were less efficient with Bifidobacterium sp. This study shows the COS as selectively functional carbohydrates with prebiotic potential and demonstrates their efficient enzymatic production.

Structural bases for N-glycan processing by mannoside phosphorylase

Crystal structures of the GH130 enzyme Uhgb_MP in the apo form and in complex with mannose and N-acetylglucosamine are described and the structural determinants of the functional specificities of the enzymes involved in N-glycan breakdown by human gut bacteria are identified.

The first crystal structure of Uhgb_MP, a β-1,4-mannopyranosyl-chitobiose phosphorylase belonging to the GH130 family which is involved in N-glycan degradation by human gut bacteria, was solved at 1.85 Å resolution in the apo form and in complex with mannose and N-acetylglucosamine. SAXS and crystal structure analysis revealed a hexameric structure, a specific feature of GH130 enzymes among other glycoside phosphorylases. Mapping of the −1 and +1 subsites in the presence of phosphate confirmed the conserved Asp104 as the general acid/base catalytic residue, which is in agreement with a single-step reaction mechanism involving Man O₃ assistance for proton transfer. Analysis of this structure, the first to be solved for a member of the GH130_2 subfamily, revealed Met67, Phe203 and the Gly121–Pro125 loop as the main determinants of the specificity of Uhgb_MP and its homologues towards the N-glycan core oligosaccharides and mannan, and the molecular bases of the key role played by GH130 enzymes in the catabolism of dietary fibre and host glycans.