Estimation of protein concentration at high sensitivity using SDS-capillary gel electrophoresis-laser induced fluorescence detection with 3-(2-furoyl)quinoline-2-carboxaldehyde protein labeling.

3-(2-furoyl)quinoline-2-carboxaldehyde (FQ) is a sensitive fluorogenic dye, used for derivatization of proteins for SDS-CGE with LIF detection (SDS-CGE-LIF) at silver staining sensitivity (ng/mL). FQ labels proteins at primary amines, found at lysines and N-termini, which vary in number and accessibility for different proteins. This work investigates the accuracy of estimation of protein concentration with SDS-CGE-LIF in real biological samples, where a different protein must be used as a standard. Sixteen purified proteins varying in molecular weight, structure, and sequence were labeled with FQ at constant mass concentration applying a commonly used procedure for SDS-CGE-LIF. The fluorescence of these proteins was measured using a spectrofluorometer and found to vary with a RSD of 36%. This compares favorably with other less sensitive methods for estimation of protein concentration such as SDS-CGE-UV and SDS-PAGE-Coomassie and is vastly superior to the equivalently sensitive silver stain. Investigation into the number of labels bound with UHPLC-ESI-QTOF-MS revealed large variations in the labeling efficiency (percentage of labels to the number of labeling sites given by the sequence) for different proteins (from 3 to 30%). This explains the observation that fluorescence per mole of protein was not proportional to the number of lysines in the sequence.

Characterization of a poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate)- hydrolyzing lipase from Pelosinus fermentans.

Certain α/ß hydrolases have the ability to hydrolyze synthetic polyesters. While their partial hydrolysis has a potential for surface functionalization, complete hydrolysis allows recycling of valuable building blocks. Although knowledge about biodegradation of these materials is important regarding their fate in the environment, it is currently limited to aerobic organisms. A lipase from the anaerobic groundwater organism Pelosinus fermentans DSM 17108(PfL1) was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli BL21-Gold (DE3) and purified from the cell extract. Biochemical characterization with small substrates showed thermoalkalophilic properties (Topt=50 °C, pHopt=7.5) and higher activity towards para-nitrophenyl octanoate (12.7 U mg(-1)) compared to longer and shorter chain lengths (C14 0.7 U mg(-1) and C2 4.3 U mg(-1), respectively). Crystallization and determination of the 3-D structure displayed the presence of a lid structure and a zinc ion surrounded by an extra domain. These properties classify the enzyme into the I.5 lipase family. PfL1 is able to hydrolyze poly(1,4-butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) polymeric substrates. The hydrolysis of PBAT showed the release of small building blocks as detected by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Protein dynamics seem to be involved with lid opening for the hydrolysis of PBAT by PfL1.