Recombinant production and characterisation of two related GH5 endo-ß-1,4-mannanases from Aspergillus nidulans FGSC A4 showing distinctly different transglycosylation capacity.

The glycoside hydrolase family 5 (GH5) endo-ß-1,4-mannanases ManA and ManC from Aspergillus nidulans FGSC A4 were produced in Pichia pastoris X33 and purified in high yields of 120 and 145mg/L, respectively, from the culture supernatants. Both enzymes showed increasing catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K(M)) towards ß-1,4 manno-oligosaccharides with the degree of polymerisation (DP) from 4 to 6 and also hydrolysed konjac glucomannan, guar gum and locust bean gum galactomannans. ManC had up to two-fold higher catalytic efficiency for DP 5 and 6 manno-oligosaccharides and also higher activity than ManA towards mannans. Remarkably, ManC compared to ManA transglycosylated mannotetraose with formation of longer ß-1,4 manno-oligosaccharides 8-fold more efficiently and was able to use mannotriose, melezitose and isomaltotriose out of 36 tested acceptors resulting in novel penta- and hexasaccharides, whereas ManA used only mannotriose as acceptor. ManA and ManC share 39% sequence identity and homology modelling suggesting that they have very similar substrate interactions at subsites +1 and +2 except that ManC Trp283 at subsite +1 corresponded to Ser289 in ManA. Site-directed mutagenesis to ManA S289W lowered K(M) for manno-oligosaccharides by 30-45% and increased transglycosylation yield by 50% compared to wild-type. Conversely, K(M) for ManC W283S was increased, the transglycosylation yield was reduced by 30-45% and furthermore activity towards mannans decreased below that of ManA. This first mutational analysis in subsite +1 of GH5 endo-ß-1,4-mannanases indicated that Trp283 in ManC participates in discriminating between mannan substrates with different extent of branching and has a role in transglycosylation and substrate affinity.

Starch-binding domains in the CBM45 family--low-affinity domains from glucan, water dikinase and α-amylase involved in plastidial starch metabolism.

Starch-binding domains are noncatalytic carbohydrate-binding modules that mediate binding to granular starch. The starch-binding domains from the carbohydrate-binding module family 45 (CBM45, http://www.cazy.org) are found as N-terminal tandem repeats in a small number of enzymes, primarily from photosynthesizing organisms. Isolated domains from representatives of each of the two classes of enzyme carrying CBM45-type domains, the Solanum tuberosumα-glucan, water dikinase and the Arabidopsis thaliana plastidial α-amylase 3, were expressed as recombinant proteins and characterized. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to verify the conformational integrity of an isolated CBM45 domain, revealing a surprisingly high thermal stability (T(m) of 84.8 °C). The functionality of CBM45 was demonstrated in planta by yellow/green fluorescent protein fusions and transient expression in tobacco leaves. Affinities for starch and soluble cyclodextrin starch mimics were measured by adsorption assays, surface plasmon resonance and isothermal titration calorimetry analyses. The data indicate that CBM45 binds with an affinity of about two orders of magnitude lower than the classical starch-binding domains from extracellular microbial amylolytic enzymes. This suggests that low-affinity starch-binding domains are a recurring feature in plastidial starch metabolism, and supports the hypothesis that reversible binding, effectuated through low-affinity interaction with starch granules, facilitates dynamic regulation of enzyme activities and, hence, of starch metabolism.

Enzymatic synthesis of ß-xylosyl-oligosaccharides by transxylosylation using two ß-xylosidases of glycoside hydrolase family 3 from Aspergillus nidulans FGSC A4.

Two ß-xylosidases of glycoside hydrolase family 3 (GH 3) from Aspergillus nidulans FGSC A4, BxlA and BxlB were produced recombinantly in Pichia pastoris and secreted to the culture supernatants in yields of 16 and 118 mg/L, respectively. BxlA showed about sixfold higher catalytic efficiency (k(cat)/K(m)) than BxlB towards para-nitrophenyl ß-D-xylopyranoside (pNPX) and ß-1,4-xylo-oligosaccharides (degree of polymerisation 2-6). For both enzymes k(cat)/K(m) decreased with increasing ß-1,4-xylo-oligosaccharide chain length. Using pNPX as donor with 9 monosaccharides, 7 disaccharides and two sugar alcohols as acceptors 18 different ß-xylosyl-oligosaccharides were synthesised in 2-36% (BxlA) and 6-66% (BxlB) yields by transxylosylation. BxlA utilised the monosaccharides D-mannose, D-lyxose, D-talose, D-xylose, D-arabinose, L-fucose, D-glucose, D-galactose and D-fructose as acceptors, whereas BxlB used the same except for D-lyxose, D-arabinose and L-fucose. BxlB transxylosylated the disaccharides xylobiose, lactulose, sucrose, lactose and turanose in upto 35% yield, while BxlA gave inferior yields on these acceptors. The regioselectivity was acceptor dependent and primarily involved ß-1,4 or 1,6 product linkage formation although minor products with different linkages were also obtained. Five of the 18 transxylosylation products obtained from D-lyxose, D-galactose, turanose and sucrose (two products) as acceptors were novel xylosyl-oligosaccharides, ß-D-Xylp-(1→4)-D-Lyxp, ß-D-Xylp-(1→6)-D-Galp, ß-D-Xylp-(1→4)-α-D-Glcp-(1→3)-ß-D-Fruf, ß-D-Xylp-(1→4)-α-D-Glcp-(1→2)-ß-D-Fruf, and ß-D-Xylp-(1→6)-ß-D-Fruf-(2→1)-α-D-Glcp, as structure-determined by 2D NMR, indicating that GH3 ß-xylosidases are able to transxylosylate a larger variety of carbohydrate acceptors than earlier reported. Furthermore, transxylosylation of certain acceptors resulted in mixtures. Some of these products are also novel, but the structures of the individual products could not be determined.