Conjugation of fluorescent proteins with DNA oligonucleotides.

This work describes the synthesis of covalent ssDNA conjugates of six fluorescent proteins, ECFP, EGFP, E(2)GFP, mDsRed, Dronpa, and mCherry, which were cloned with an accessible C-terminal cystein residue to enable site-selective coupling using a heterobispecific cross-linker. The resulting conjugates revealed similar fluorescence emission intensity to the unconjugated proteins, and the functionality of the tethered oligonucleotide was proven by specific Watson-Crick base pairing to cDNA-modified gold nanoparticles. Fluorescence spectroscopy analysis indicated that the fluorescence of the FP is quenched by the gold particle, and the extent of quenching varied with the intrinsic spectroscopic properties of FP as well as with the configuration of surface attachment. Since this study demonstrates that biological fluorophores can be selectively incorporated into and optically coupled with nanoparticle-based devices, applications in DNA-based nanofabrication can be foreseen.

Characterization of the peroxidase activity of CYP119, a thermostable P450 from Sulfolobus acidocaldarius.

We report the cloning, expression, and purification of CYP119, a thermostable enzyme previously thought to derive from Sulfolobus solfataricus. Sequence analysis suggested that, in contrast to the conclusions of earlier studies, the enzyme stems from the closely related Sulfolobus acidocaldarius, and we were indeed able to clone the gene from the genomic DNA of this organism. For the first time, we report here on the peroxidase activity of this enzyme and the optimization of the associated reaction parameters. The optimized reaction conditions were then applied to the biocatalytic epoxidation of styrene. The values obtained for k(cat) (78.2+/-20.6 min(-1)) and K(M) (9.2+/-4.3 mM) indicated an approximately 100-fold increased catalytic activity over previously reported results.

Peroxidase activity of bacterial cytochrome P450 enzymes: modulation by fatty acids and organic solvents.

The modulation of peroxidase activity by fatty acid additives and organic cosolvents was determined and compared for four bacterial cytochrome P450 enzymes, thermostable P450 CYP119A1, the P450 domain of CYP102A1 (BMP), CYP152A1 (P450(bsbeta)), and CYP101A1 (P450(cam)). Utilizing a high-throughput microplate assay, we were able to readily screen more than 100 combinations of enzymes, additives and cosolvents in a convenient and highly reproducible assay format. We found that, in general, CYP119A1 and BMP showed an increase in peroxidative activity in the presence of fatty acids, whereas CYP152A1 revealed a decrease in activity and CYP101A1 was only slightly affected. In particular, we observed that the conversion of the fluorogenic peroxidase substrate Amplex Red by CYP119A1 and BMP was increased by a factor of 38 or 11, respectively, when isopropanol and lauric acid were present in the reaction mixture. The activity of CYP119A1 could thus be modulated to reach more than 90% of the activity of CYP152A1 without effectors, which is the system with the highest peroxidative activity. For all P450s investigated we found distinctive reactivity patterns, which suggest similarities in the binding site of CYP119A1 and BMP in contrast with the other two proteins studied. Therefore, this study points towards a role of fatty acids as activators for CYP enzymes in addition to being mere substrates. In general, our detailed description of fatty acid- and organic solvent-effects is of practical interest because it illustrates that optimization of modulators and cosolvents can lead to significantly increased yields in biocatalysis.