Repertoire of Computationally Designed Peroxygenases for Enantiodivergent C-H Oxyfunctionalization Reactions.

The generation of enantiodivergent biocatalysts for C-H oxyfunctionalizations is ever more important in modern synthetic chemistry. Here, we have applied the FuncLib algorithm based on phylogenetic and Rosetta calculations to design a diverse repertoire of active, stable, and enantiodivergent fungal peroxygenases. 24 designs, each carrying 4-5 mutations in the catalytic core, were expressed functionally in yeast and benchmarked against characteristic model compounds. Several designs were active and stable in a range of temperature and pH, displaying unprecedented enantiodivergence, changing regioselectivity from alkyl to aromatic hydroxylation, and increasing catalytic efficiencies up to 10-fold, with 15-fold improvements in total turnover numbers over the parental enzyme. We find that this dramatic functional divergence stems from beneficial epistasis among the mutations and an extensive reorganization of the heme channel. Our work demonstrates that FuncLib can rapidly design highly functional libraries enriched in enantioselective peroxygenases not seen in nature for a range of biotechnological applications.

Designed High-Redox Potential Laccases Exhibit High Functional Diversity.

White-rot fungi secrete an impressive repertoire of high-redox potential laccases (HRPLs) and peroxidases for efficient oxidation and utilization of lignin. Laccases are attractive enzymes for the chemical industry due to their broad substrate range and low environmental impact. Since expression of functional recombinant HRPLs is challenging, however, iterative-directed evolution protocols have been applied to improve their expression, activity, and stability. We implement a rational, stabilize-and-diversify strategy to two HRPLs that we could not functionally express. First, we use the PROSS stability-design algorithm to allow functional expression in yeast. Second, we use the stabilized enzymes as starting points for FuncLib active-site design to improve their activity and substrate diversity. Four of the FuncLib-designed HRPLs and their PROSS progenitor exhibit substantial diversity in reactivity profiles against high-redox potential substrates, including lignin monomers. Combinations of 3-4 subtle mutations that change the polarity, solvation, and sterics of the substrate-oxidation site result in orders of magnitude changes in reactivity profiles. These stable and versatile HRPLs are a step toward generating an effective lignin-degrading consortium of enzymes that can be secreted from yeast. The stabilize-and-diversify strategy can be applied to other challenging enzyme families to study and expand the utility of natural enzymes.

Pinoresinol-lariciresinol reductases, key to the lignan synthesis in plants.

MAIN CONCLUSION: This paper provides an overview on activity, stereospecificity, expression and regulation of pinoresinol-lariciresinol reductases in plants. These enzymes are shared by the pathways to all 8-8' lignans derived from pinoresinol. Pinoresinol-lariciresinol reductases (PLR) are enzymes involved in the lignan biosynthesis after the initial dimerization of two monolignols. They catalyze two successive reduction steps leading to the production of lariciresinol or secoisolariciresinol from pinoresinol. Two secoisolariciresinol enantiomers can be synthetized with different fates. Depending on the plant species, these enantiomers are either final products (e.g., in the flaxseed where it is stored after glycosylation) or are the starting point for the synthesis of a wide range of lignans, among which the aryltetralin type lignans are used to semisynthesize anticancer drugs such as Etoposide®. Thus, the regulation of the gene expression of PLRs as well as the possible specificities of these reductases for one reduction step or one enantiomer are key factors to fine-tune the lignan synthesis. Results published in the last decade have shed light on the presence of more than one PLR in each plant and revealed various modes of action. Nevertheless, there are not many results published on the PLRs and most of them were obtained in a limited range of species. Indeed, a number of them deal with wild and cultivated flax belonging to the genus Linum. Despite the occurrence of lignans in bryophytes, pteridophytes and monocots, data on PLRs in these taxa are still missing and indeed the whole diversity of PLRs is still unknown. This review summarizes the data, published mainly in the last decade, on the PLR gene expression, enzymatic activity and biological function.

The Generation of Thermostable Fungal Laccase Chimeras by SCHEMA-RASPP Structure-Guided Recombination in Vivo.

Fungal laccases are biotechnologically relevant enzymes that are capable of oxidizing a wide array of compounds, using oxygen from the air and releasing water as the only byproduct. The laccase structure is comprised of three cupredoxin domains sheltering two copper centers-the T1Cu site and the T2/T3 trinuclear Cu cluster-connected to each other through a highly conserved internal electron transfer pathway. As such, the generation of laccase chimeras with high sequence diversity from different orthologs is difficult to achieve without compromising protein functionality. Here, we have obtained a diverse family of functional chimeras showing increased thermostability from three fungal laccase orthologs with ∼70% protein sequence identity. Assisted by the high frequency of homologous DNA recombination in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, computationally selected SCHEMA-RASPP blocks were spliced and cloned in a one-pot transformation. As a result of this in vivo assembly, an enriched library of laccase chimeras was rapidly generated, with multiple recombination events simultaneously occurring between and within the SCHEMA blocks. The resulting library was screened at high temperature, identifying a collection of thermostable chimeras with considerable sequence diversity, which varied from their closest parent homologue by 46 amino acids on average. The most thermostable variant increased its half-life of thermal inactivation at 70 °C 5-fold (up to 108 min), whereas several chimeras also displayed improved stability at acidic pH. The two catalytic copper sites spanned different SCHEMA blocks, shedding light on the recognition of specific residues involved in substrate oxidation. In summary, this case-study, through comparison with previous laccase engineering studies, highlights the benefits of bringing together computationally guided recombination and in vivo shuffling as an invaluable strategy for laccase evolution, which can be translated to other enzyme systems.

Evolved α-factor prepro-leaders for directed laccase evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Although the functional expression of fungal laccases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae has proven to be complicated, the replacement of signal peptides appears to be a suitable approach to enhance secretion in directed evolution experiments. In this study, twelve constructs were prepared by fusing native and evolved α-factor prepro-leaders from S. cerevisiae to four different laccases with low-, medium- and high-redox potential (PM1L from basidiomycete PM1; PcL from Pycnoporus cinnabarinus; TspC30L from Trametes sp. strain C30; and MtL from Myceliophthora thermophila). Microcultures of the prepro-leader:laccase fusions were grown in selective expression medium that used galactose as both the sole carbon source and as the inducer of expression so that the secretion and activity were assessed with low- and high-redox potential mediators in a high-throughput screening context. With total activity improvements as high as sevenfold over those obtained with the native α-factor prepro-leader, the evolved prepro-leader from PcL (αPcL ) most strongly enhanced secretion of the high- and medium-redox potential laccases PcL, PM1L and TspC30L in the microtiter format with an expression pattern driven by prepro-leaders in the order αPcL  > αPM1L  ~ αnative . By contrast, the pattern of the low-redox potential MtL was αnative  > αPcL  > αPM1L . When produced in flask with rich medium, the evolved prepro-leaders outperformed the αnative signal peptide irrespective of the laccase attached, enhancing secretion over 50-fold. Together, these results highlight the importance of using evolved α-factor prepro-leaders for functional expression of fungal laccases in directed evolution campaigns.

Functional characterization of the pinoresinol-lariciresinol reductase-2 gene reveals its roles in yatein biosynthesis and flax defense response.

MAIN CONCLUSION: This study provides new insights into the biosynthesis regulation and in planta function of the lignan yatein in flax leaves. Pinoresinol-lariciresinol reductases (PLR) catalyze the conversion of pinoresinol into secoisolariciresinol (SECO) in lignan biosynthesis. Several lignans are accumulated in high concentrations, such as SECO accumulated as secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) in seeds and yatein in aerial parts, in the flax plant (Linum usitatissimum L.) from which two PLR enzymes of opposite enantioselectivity have been isolated. While LuPLR1 catalyzes the biosynthesis of (+)-SECO leading to (+)-SDG in seeds, the role(s) of the second PLR (LuPLR2) is not completely elucidated. This study provides new insights into the in planta regulation and function of the lignan yatein in flax leaves: its biosynthesis relies on a different PLR with opposite stereospecificity but also on a distinct expression regulation. RNAi technology provided evidence for the in vivo involvement of the LuPLR2 gene in the biosynthesis of (-)-yatein accumulated in flax leaves. LuPLR2 expression in different tissues and in response to stress was studied by RT-qPCR and promoter-reporter transgenesis showing that the spatio-temporal expression of the LuPLR2 gene in leaves perfectly matches the (-)-yatein accumulation and that LuPLR2 expression and yatein production are increased by methyl jasmonate and wounding. A promoter deletion approach yielded putative regulatory elements. This expression pattern in relation to a possible role for this lignan in flax defense is discussed.