NewProt - a protein engineering portal.

The NewProt protein engineering portal is a one-stop-shop for in silico protein engineering. It gives access to a large number of servers that compute a wide variety of protein structure characteristics supporting work on the modification of proteins through the introduction of (multiple) point mutations. The results can be inspected through multiple visualizers. The HOPE software is included to indicate mutations with possible undesired side effects. The Hotspot Wizard software is embedded for the design of mutations that modify a proteins' activity, specificity, or stability. The NewProt portal is freely accessible at http://newprot.cmbi.umcn.nl/ and http://newprot.fluidops.net/.

Bioinformatic analysis of fold-type III PLP-dependent enzymes discovers multimeric racemases.

Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes are ubiquitous in nature and catalyze a variety of important metabolic reactions. The fold-type III PLP-dependent enzyme family is primarily comprised of decarboxylases and alanine racemases. In the development of a multiple structural alignment database (3DM) for the enzyme family, a large subset of 5666 uncharacterized proteins with high structural, but low sequence similarity to alanine racemase and decarboxylases was found. Compared to these two classes of enzymes, the protein sequences being the object of this study completely lack the C-terminal domain, which has been reported important for the formation of the dimer interface in other fold-type III enzymes. The 5666 sequences cluster around four protein templates, which also share little sequence identity to each other. In this work, these four template proteins were solubly expressed in Escherichia coli, purified, and their substrate profiles were evaluated by HPLC analysis for racemase activity using a broader range of amino acids. They were found active only against alanine or serine, where they exhibited Michaelis constants within the range of typical bacterial alanine racemases, but with significantly lower turnover numbers. As the already described racemases were proposed to be active and appeared to be monomers as judged from their crystal structures, we also investigated this aspect for the four new enzymes. Here, size exclusion chromatography indicated the presence of oligomeric states of the enzymes and a native-PAGE in-gel assay showed that the racemase activity was present only in an oligomeric state but not as monomer. This suggests the likelihood of a different behavior of these enzymes in solution compared to the one observed in crystalline form.

Identification of (S)-selective transaminases for the asymmetric synthesis of bulky chiral amines.

The use of transaminases to access pharmaceutically relevant chiral amines is an attractive alternative to transition-metal-catalysed asymmetric chemical synthesis. However, one major challenge is their limited substrate scope. Here we report the creation of highly active and stereoselective transaminases starting from fold class I. The transaminases were developed by extensive protein engineering followed by optimization of the identified motif. The resulting enzymes exhibited up to 8,900-fold higher activity than the starting scaffold and are highly stereoselective (up to >99.9% enantiomeric excess) in the asymmetric synthesis of a set of chiral amines bearing bulky substituents. These enzymes should therefore be suitable for use in the synthesis of a wide array of potential intermediates for pharmaceuticals. We also show that the motif can be engineered into other protein scaffolds with sequence identities as low as 70%, and as such should have a broad impact in the field of biocatalytic synthesis and enzyme engineering.

Switch in Cofactor Specificity of a Baeyer-Villiger Monooxygenase.

Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (BVMOs) catalyze the oxidation of ketones to esters or lactones by using molecular oxygen and a cofactor. Type I BVMOs display a strong preference for NADPH. However, for industrial purposes NADH is the preferred cofactor, as it is ten times cheaper and more stable. Thus, we created a variant of the cyclohexanone monooxygenase from Acinetobacter sp. NCIMB 9871 (CHMOAcineto ); this used NADH 4200-fold better than NADPH. By combining structure analysis, sequence alignment, and literature data, 21 residues in proximity of the cofactor were identified and targeted for mutagenesis. Two combinatorial variants bearing three or four mutations showed higher conversions of cyclohexanone with NADH (79 %) compared to NADPH (58 %) as well as specificity. The structural reasons for this switch in cofactor specificity of a type I BVMO are especially a hydrogen-bond network coordinating the two hydroxy groups of NADH through direct interactions and bridging water molecules.

Switching the Regioselectivity of a Cyclohexanone Monooxygenase toward (+)-trans-Dihydrocarvone by Rational Protein Design.

The regioselectivity of the Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenase-catalyzed oxidation is governed mostly by electronic effects leading to the migration of the higher substituted residue. However, in some cases, substrate binding occurs in a way that the less substituted residue lies in an antiperiplanar orientation to the peroxy bond in the Criegee intermediate yielding in the formation of the "abnormal" lactone product. We are the first to demonstrate a complete switch in the regioselectivity of the BVMO from Arthrobacter sp. (CHMOArthro) as exemplified for (+)-trans-dihydrocarvone by redesigning the active site of the enzyme. In the designed triple mutant, the substrate binds in an inverted orientation leading to a ratio of 99:1 in favor of the normal lactone instead of exclusive formation of the abnormal lactone in case of the wild type enzyme. In order to validate our computational study, the beneficial mutations were successfully transferred to the CHMO from Acinetobacter sp. (CHMOAcineto), again yielding in a complete switch of regioselectivity.

Alteration of the Donor/Acceptor Spectrum of the (S)-Amine Transaminase from Vibrio fluvialis.

To alter the amine donor/acceptor spectrum of an (S)-selective amine transaminase (ATA), a library based on the Vibrio fluvialis ATA targeting four residues close to the active site (L56, W57, R415 and L417) was created. A 3DM-derived alignment comprising fold class I pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP)-dependent enzymes allowed identification of positions, which were assumed to determine substrate specificity. These positions were targeted for mutagenesis with a focused alphabet of hydrophobic amino acids to convert an amine:α-keto acid transferase into an amine:aldehyde transferase. Screening of 1200 variants revealed three hits, which showed a shifted amine donor/acceptor spectrum towards aliphatic aldehydes (mainly pentanal), as well as an altered pH profile. Interestingly, all three hits, although found independently, contained the same mutation R415L and additional W57F and L417V substitutions.

The effect of disulfide bond introduction and related Cys/Ser mutations on the stability of a cyclohexanone monooxygenase.

Baeyer-Villiger monooxygenases (BVMO) belong to the class B of flavin-dependent monooxygenases (type I BVMOs) and catalyze the oxidation of (cyclic) ketones into esters and lactones. The prototype BVMO is the cyclohexanone monooxygenase (CHMO) from Acinetobacter sp. NCIMB 9871. This enzyme shows an impressive substrate scope with a high chemo-, regio- and/or enantioselectivity. BVMO reactions are often difficult, if not impossible to achieve by chemical approaches and this makes these enzymes thus highly desired candidates for industrial applications. Unfortunately, the industrial use is hampered by several factors related to the lack of stability of these biocatalysts. Thus, the aim of this study was to improve the CHMO's long-term stability, one of the most relevant parameter for biocatalytic processes, and additionally its stability against oxidation. We used an easy computational method for the prediction of stabilizing disulfide bonds in the CHMO-scaffold. The three most promising predicted disulfide pairs were created and biochemically characterized. The most oxidatively stable variant (Y411C-A463C) retained nearly 60% activity after incubation with 25 mM H2O2 whereas the wild type retained only 16%. In addition, one extra disulfide pair (T415C-A463C) was created and tested for increased stability. The melting temperature (Tm) of this variant was increased by 5°C with simultaneous improved long-term stability. After verification by ABD-F labeling that this mutant does not form a disulfide bond, single and double Cys/Ser mutants were prepared and investigated. Subsequent analysis revealed that the T415C single point variant is the most stable variant with a 30-fold increased long-term stability (33% residual activity after 24h incubation at 25°C) showcasing a great achievement for practical applications.

Posttranslational incorporation of noncanonical amino acids in the RNase S system by semisynthetic protein assembly.

The unique ribonuclease S (RNase S) system, derived from proteolytic cleavage of bovine ribonuclease A (RNase A), consists of a tight complex formed by a peptide (amino acids 1-20) and a protein (21-124) part. These fragments, designated as S-peptide and S-protein, can be separated by two purification steps. By addition of synthetic S-peptide derivatives to the S-protein, semisynthetic RNase S is reassembled with high efficiency. Based on this peptide-protein complementation noncanonical amino acids can be easily introduced into a protein host. Here we describe the preparation of the S-protein from RNase A as well as the characterization of the reassembled semisynthetic RNase S complex. Complex formation can be monitored by RNase activity, circular dichroism, or fluorescence polarization. Structure-based enzyme design of the RNase S scaffold is possible based on high-resolution crystal structures of RNase S and its semisynthetic variants.

Synthesis of pathological and nonpathological human exon 1 huntingtin.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects approximately 1 in 10 000 individuals. The underlying gene mutation was identified as a CAG-triplet repeat expansion in the gene huntingtin. The CAG sequence codes for glutamine, and in HD, an expansion of the polyglutamine (poly-Q) stretch above 35 glutamine residues results in pathogenicity. It has been demonstrated in various animal models that only the expression of exon 1 huntingtin, a 67-amino acid-long polypeptide plus a variable poly-Q stretch, is sufficient to cause full HD-like pathology. Therefore, a deeper understanding of exon 1 huntingtin, its structure, aggregation mechanism and interaction with other proteins is crucial for a better understanding of the disease. Here, we describe the synthesis of a 109-amino acid-long exon 1 huntingtin peptide including a poly-Q stretch of 42 glutamines. This microwave-assisted solid phase peptide synthesis resulted in milligram amounts of peptide with high purity. We also synthesized a nonpathogenic version of exon 1 huntingtin (90-amino acid long including a poly-Q stretch of 23 glutamine residues) using the same strategy. In circular dichroism spectroscopy, both polypeptides showed weak alpha-helical properties with the longer peptide showing a higher helical degree. These model peptides have great potential for further biomedical analyses, e.g. for large-scale pre-screenings for aggregation inhibitors, further structural analyses as well as protein-protein interaction studies.