A new ß-galactosidase from Paenibacillus wynnii with potential for industrial applications.

Commercial ß-galactosidases exhibit undesirable kinetic properties regarding substrate affinity (KM for lactose) and product inhibition (Ki for galactose). An in silico screening of gene sequences was done and identified a putative ß-galactosidase (BgaPw) from the psychrophilic bacterium Paenibacillus wynnii. The cultivation of the wild-type P. wynnii strain resulted in very low ß-galactosidase activities of a maximum of 150 nkatoNPGal/Lmedium. The recombinant production of BgaPw in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) increased the yield about 9,000-fold. Here, a volumetric activity of 1350.18 ± 11.82 µkatoNPGal/Lculture was achieved in a bioreactor cultivation. The partly purified BgaPw showed a pH optimum at 7.0, a temperature maximum at 40°C and an excellent stability at 8°C with a half-life of 77 d. Kinetic studies with BgaPw were done in milk or in milk-imitating synthetic buffer, so-called Novo buffer, respectively. Remarkably, the KM value of BgaPw with lactose was as low as 0.63 ± 0.045 mM in milk. It was found that the resulting products of lactose hydrolysis, namely, galactose and glucose, did not inhibit the ß-galactosidase activity of BgaPw but instead showed a striking activating effect in both cases (up to 144%). In a comparison study in milk, lactose was completely hydrolyzed by BgaPw in 72 h at 8°C, whereas 2 other known ß-galactosidases were less powerful and converted only about 90% of lactose in the same time. Finally, the formation of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) was demonstrated with the new BgaPw, starting with pharma-lactose (400 g/L). A GOS production of about 144 g/L was achieved after 24 h (36.0% yield).

A fusion protein consisting of the exopeptidases PepN and PepX-production, characterization, and application.

Nowadays, general and specific aminopeptidases are of great interest, especially for protein hydrolysis in the food industry. As shown previously, it is confirmed that the general aminopeptidase N (PepN; EC 3.4.11.2) and the proline-specific peptidase PepX (EC 3.4.14.11) from Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 12046 show a synergistic effect during protein hydrolysis which results in high degrees of hydrolysis and reduced bitterness. To combine both activities, the enzymes were linked and a fusion protein called PepN-L1-PepX (FUS-PepN-PepX) was created. After production and purification, the fusion protein was characterized. Some of its biochemical characteristics were altered in favor for an application compared to the single enzymes. As an example, the optimum temperature for the PepN activity increased from 30 °C for the single enzyme to 35 °C for FUS-PepN. In addition, the temperature stability of PepX was higher for FUS-PepX than for the single enzyme (50 % compared to 40 % residual activity at 50 °C after 14 days, respectively). In addition, the disulfide bridge-reducing reagent ß-mercaptoethanol did not longer inactivate the FUS-PepN activity. Furthermore, the K M values decreased for both enzyme activities in the fusion protein. Finally, it was found that the synergistic hydrolysis performance in a casein hydrolysis was not reduced for the fusion protein. The increase of the relative degree of hydrolysis of a prehydrolyzed casein solution was the same as it was for the single enzymes. As a benefit, the resulting hydrolysate showed a strong antioxidative capacity (ABTS-IC50 value: 5.81 µg mL(-1)).

A Novel Glutamyl (Aspartyl)-Specific Aminopeptidase A from Lactobacillus delbrueckii with Promising Properties for Application.

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are auxotrophic for a number of amino acids. Thus, LAB have one of the strongest proteolytic systems to acquit their amino acid requirements. One of the intracellular exopeptidases present in LAB is the glutamyl (aspartyl) specific aminopeptidase (PepA; EC 3.4.11.7). Most of the PepA enzymes characterized yet, belonged to Lactococcus lactis sp., but no PepA from a Lactobacillus sp. has been characterized so far. In this study, we cloned a putative pepA gene from Lb. delbrueckii ssp. lactis DSM 20072 and characterized it after purification. For comparison, we also cloned, purified and characterized PepA from Lc. lactis ssp. lactis DSM 20481. Due to the low homology between both enzymes (30%), differences between the biochemical characteristics were very likely. This was confirmed, for example, by the more acidic optimum pH value of 6.0 for Lb-PepA compared to pH 8.0 for Lc-PepA. In addition, although the optimum temperature is quite similar for both enzymes (Lb-PepA: 60°C; Lc-PepA: 65°C), the temperature stability after three days, 20°C below the optimum temperature, was higher for Lb-PepA (60% residual activity) than for Lc-PepA (2% residual activity). EDTA inhibited both enzymes and the strongest activation was found for CoCl2, indicating that both enzymes are metallopeptidases. In contrast to Lc-PepA, disulfide bond-reducing agents such as dithiothreitol did not inhibit Lb-PepA. Finally, Lb-PepA was not product-inhibited by L-Glu, whereas Lc-PepA showed an inhibition.

Homologous expression and biochemical characterization of the arylsulfatase from Kluyveromyces lactis and its relevance in milk processing.

The industrial manufacturing process of lactose-free milk products depends on the application of commercial ß-galactosidase (lactase) preparations. These preparations are often obtained from Kluyveromyces lactis. There is a gene present in the genome of K. lactis which should encode for an enzyme called arylsulfatase (EC 3.1.6.1). Therefore, this enzyme could also be present in ß-galactosidase preparations. The arylsulfatase is suspected of being responsible for an unpleasant "cowshed-like" off-flavor resulting from the release of p-cresol from milk endogenous alkylphenol sulfuric esters. So far, no gene/functionality relationship is described. In addition, no study is available which has shown that arylsulfatase from K. lactis is truly responsible for the flavor generation. In this study, we cloned the putative arylsulfatase gene from K. lactis GG799 into the commercially available vector pKLAC2. The cloning strategy chosen resulted in a homologous, secretory expression of the arylsulfatase. We showed that the heretofore putative arylsulfatase has the desired activity with the synthetic substrate p-nitrophenyl sulfate and with the natural substrate p-cresol sulfate. The enzyme was biochemically characterized and showed an optimum temperature of 45-50 °C and an optimum pH of 9-10. Additionally, the arylsulfatase was activated by Ca(2+) ions and was inactivated by Zn(2+) ions. Moreover, the arylsulfatase was inhibited by p-cresol and sulfate ions. Finally, the enzyme was added to ultra-heat treated (UHT) milk and a sensory triangle test verified that the arylsulfatase from K. lactis can cause an unpleasant "cowshed-like" off-flavor.

Heterologous expression and pro-peptide supported refolding of the high specific endopeptidase Lys-C.

The high specific lysyl endopeptidase (Lys-C; EC 3.4.21.50) is often used for the initial fragmentation of polypeptide chains during protein sequence analysis. However, due to its specificity it could be a useful tool for the production of tailor-made protein hydrolysates with for example bioactive or techno functional properties. Up to now, the high price makes this application nearly impossible. In this work, the increased expression for Escherichia coli optimized Lys-C was investigated. The cloned sequence had a short artificial N-terminal pro-peptide (MGSK). The expression of MGSK-Lys-C was tested using three expression vectors and five E. coli host strains. The highest expression rate was obtained for the expression system consisting of the host strain E. coli JM109 and the rhamnose inducible expression vector pJOE. A Lys-C activity of 9340 ± 555 nkatTos-GPK-pNA/Lculture could be achieved under optimized cultivation conditions after chemical refolding. Furthermore, the influence of the native pre-N-pro peptide of Lys-C from Lysobacter enzymogenes ssp. enzymogenes ATCC 27796 on Lys-C refolding was investigated. The pre-N-pro peptide was expressed recombinantly in E. coli JM109 using the pJOE expression vector. The optimal concentration of the pre-N-pro peptide in the refolding procedure was 100 µg/mLrefolding buffer and the Lys-C activity could be increased to 541,720 nkatTos-GPK-pNA/Lculture. With the results presented, the expensive lysyl endopeptidase can be produced in high activity and high amounts and the potential of Lys-C for tailor-made protein hydrolysates with bioactive (e.g. antihypertensive) and/or techno functional (e.g. foaming, emulsifying) properties can be investigated in future time studies.

Novel high-performance metagenome ß-galactosidases for lactose hydrolysis in the dairy industry.

The industrially utilised ß-galactosidases from Kluyveromyces spp. and Aspergillus spp. feature undesirable kinetic properties in praxis, such as an unsatisfactory lactose affinity (KM) and product inhibition (KI) by galactose. In this study, a metagenome library of about 1.3 million clones was investigated with a three-step activity-based screening strategy in order to find new ß-galactosidases with more favourable kinetic properties. Six novel metagenome ß-galactosidases (M1-M6) were found with an improved lactose hydrolysis performance in original milk when directly compared to the commercial ß-galactosidase from Kluyveromyces lactis (GODO-YNL2). The best metagenome candidate, called "M1", was recombinantly produced in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3) in a bioreactor (volume 35 L), resulting in a total ß-galactosidase M1 activity of about 1100 µkatoNPGal,37 °C L(-1). Since milk is a sensitive and complex medium, it has to be processed at 5-10 °C in the dairy industry. Therefore, the ß-galactosidase M1 was tested at 8 °C in milk and possessed a good stability (t1/2=21.8 d), a desirably low apparent KM,lactose,8 °C value of 3.8±0.7 mM and a high apparent KI,galactose,8 °C value of 196.6±55.5 mM. A lactose hydrolysis process (milk, 40 nkatlactose mLmilk,8 °C(-1)) was conducted at a scale of 0.5L to compare the performance of M1 with the commercial ß-galactosidase from K. lactis (GODO-YNL2). Lactose was completely (>99.99%) hydrolysed by M1 and to 99.6% (w/v) by K. lactis ß-galactosidase after 25 h process time. Thus, M1 was able to achieve the limit of <100 mg lactose per litre milk, which is recommended for dairy products labelled as "lactose-free".

Characterization of the recombinant exopeptidases PepX and PepN from Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 12046 important for food protein hydrolysis.

The proline-specific X-prolyl dipeptidyl aminopeptidase (PepX; EC 3.4.14.11) and the general aminopeptidase N (PepN; EC 3.4.11.2) from Lactobacillus helveticus ATCC 12046 were produced recombinantly in E. coli BL21(DE3) via bioreactor cultivation. The maximum enzymatic activity obtained for PepX was 800 µkat(H-Ala-Pro-pNA) L(-1), which is approx. 195-fold higher than values published previously. To the best of our knowledge, PepN was expressed in E. coli at high levels for the first time. The PepN activity reached 1,000 µkat(H-Ala-pNA) L(-1). After an automated chromatographic purification, both peptidases were biochemically and kinetically characterized in detail. Substrate inhibition of PepN and product inhibition of both PepX and PepN were discovered for the first time. An apo-enzyme of the Zn(2+)-dependent PepN was generated, which could be reactivated by several metal ions in the order of Co(2+)>Zn(2+)>Mn(2+)>Ca(2+)>Mg(2+). PepX and PepN exhibited a clear synergistic effect in casein hydrolysis studies. Here, the relative degree of hydrolysis (rDH) was increased by approx. 132%. Due to the remarkable temperature stability at 50°C and the complementary substrate specificities of both peptidases, a future application in food protein hydrolysis might be possible.

Controlled exogenous enzyme imbibition and activation in whole chickpea seed enzyme reactor (SER).

Chickpeas are of excellent quality (protein, vitamins, minerals, unsaturated fatty acids) and very low in phytoestrogen, making them a potentially promising source for vegetarian-based infant formula (VBIF). However, their high starch and fiber concentration could hinder their utilization for infants. To overcome this natural shortcoming, a solid-state "enzymation" (SSE) process was developed in which imbibition of exogenous enzyme facilitates hydrolysis within the intact chickpea seed. The process was termed seed enzyme reactor (SER). Liquid imbibition data of dry chickpeas during soaking were fitted with the Weibull distribution model. The derived Weibull shape parameter, ß, value (0.77 ± 0.11) indicated that the imbibition mechanism followed Fickian diffusion. Imbibition occurred through the coat and external layers. The process was tested using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as an exogenous marker, and involved soaking, thermal treatment, peeling, microwave partial drying, rehydration in enzyme solution, and SSE at an adjusted pH, time, and temperature. Amylases, or a combination of amylases and cellulases, resulted in significant carbohydrate hydrolysis (23% and 47% of the available starch, respectively). In addition, chickpea initial raffinose and stachyose concentration was significantly reduced (91% and 92%, respectively). The process could serve as a proof of concept, requiring additional development and optimization to become a full industrial application.

Evaluation of ultrasound velocity measurements for estimating protease activities using casein as substrate.

Ultrasonic resonator technology (URT) was compared with the well established UV-Vis/ninhydrin assay to estimate protease activities in defined buffer systems. Hydrolysis of casein was measured using subtilisin, trypsin, halophilic protease from Haloferax mediterranei and Bacillus lentus alkaline protease. Sensitivity, reproducibility, working range as well as the limit of detection and the limit of quantification were comparable for both methods. Salt concentrations (0.5 M NaCl) interfered with the URT method. The quantification of protease activity by URT was possible when the product concentration measured by the UV-Vis/ninhydrin assay was correlated to the corresponding ultrasonic velocity signals.

Enzymatic production and complete nuclear magnetic resonance assignment of the sugar lactulose.

The enzymatic transgalactosylation from lactose to fructose leading to the prebiotic disaccharide lactulose was investigated using the beta-galactosidase from Aspergillus oryzae and the hyperthermostable beta-glycosidase from Pyrococcus furiosus (CelB). The conditions for highest lactulose yields relative to the initial lactose concentration were established on a 1 mL scale. Dependent on the initial molar ratio of lactose to fructose, more or fewer oligosaccharides other than lactulose were generated. Bioconversions on a 30 mL scale in a stirred glass reactor were performed, and lactulose yields of 46 mmol/L (44% relative to lactose) for CelB and 30 mmol/L (30% relative to lactose) for A. oryzae beta-galactosidase were achieved. Only <5% of other oligosaccharides were detectable. The corresponding productivities were 24 and 16 mmol/L/h, respectively. The molecular structure of lactulose was investigated in detail and confirmed after purification of the reaction solution by LC-MS and 1D and 2D NMR. Lactulose (4-O-beta-D-galactopyranosyl-D-fructose) was unambiguously proved to be the major transglycosylation disaccharide.

Bioreactor cultivation of Escherichia coli for production of recombinant penicillin G amidase from Alcaligenes faecalis.

The penicillin G amidase (PGA) from Alcaligenes faecalis, which has interesting properties for use in combinatorial biochemistry, was produced by recombinant expression in Escherichia coli. The corresponding gene was cloned into a multicopy vector under the strict regulatory control of the rhamnose inducible promoter. Cells were grown in a synthetic minimal medium in a bioreactor (5 l working vol.), and production of PGA was induced by repeated addition of the inducer rhamnose, that served also as a carbon source. The fermentation yield was about 4500 units PGA activity per liter of culture medium.