RESUMO
Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) kinase from Citrobacter freundii provides an easy entry for the preparation of DHA phosphate; a very important C3 building block in nature. To modify the phosphoryl donor specificity of this enzyme from ATP to inorganic polyphosphate (poly-P); a directed evolution program has been initiated. In the first cycle of evolution, the native enzyme was subjected to one round of error-prone PCR (EP-PCR) followed directly (without selection) by a round of DNA shuffling. Although the wild-type DHAK did not show activity with poly-P, after screening, sixteen mutant clones showed an activity with poly-phosphate as phosphoryl donor statistically significant. The most active mutant presented a single mutation (Glu526Lys) located in a flexible loop near of the active center. Interestingly, our theoretical studies, based on molecular dynamics simulations and hybrid Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) optimizations, suggest that this mutation has an effect on the binding of the poly-P favoring a more adequate position in the active center for the reaction to take place.
Assuntos
Trifosfato de Adenosina/química , Modelos Moleculares , Fosfotransferases (Aceptor do Grupo Álcool)/química , Polifosfatos/química , Trifosfato de Adenosina/metabolismo , Sítios de Ligação , Biblioteca Gênica , Conformação Molecular , Simulação de Acoplamento Molecular , Simulação de Dinâmica Molecular , Mutação , Fosfotransferases (Aceptor do Grupo Álcool)/genética , Fosfotransferases (Aceptor do Grupo Álcool)/metabolismo , Polifosfatos/metabolismo , Ligação Proteica , Domínios e Motivos de Interação entre Proteínas , Relação Estrutura-Atividade , Especificidade por SubstratoRESUMO
Candida Antarctica lipase B (CALB) is a well-known enzyme, especially because of its promiscuous activity. Due to its properties, CALB was widely used as a benchmark for designing new catalysts for important organic reactions. The active site of CALB is very similar to that of soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) formed by a nucleophile-histidine-acid catalytic triad and an oxyanion hole typical for molecular structures derived from processes of α/ß hydrolases. In this work we are exploring these similarities and proposing a Ser105Asp variant of CALB as a new catalyst for epoxide hydrolysis. In particular, the hydrolysis of the trans-diphenylpropene oxide (t-DPPO) is studied by means of quantum cluster models mimicking the active site of both enzymes. Our results, based on semi-empirical and DFT calculations, suggest that mutant Ser105Asp CALB is a good protein scaffold to be used for the bio-synthesis of chiral compounds.