Acetyl xylan esterase (AXE; E.C. 3.1.1.72) is one of the accessory enzymes for xylan degradation, which can remove the terminal acetate residues from xylan polymers. In this study, two genes encoding putative AXEs (LaAXE and BhAXE) were cloned from Lactobacillus antri DSM 16041 and Bacillus halodurans C-125, and constitutively expressed in Escherichia coli. They possess considerable activities towards various substrates such as p-nitrophenyl acetate, 4-methylumbelliferyl acetate, glucose pentaacetate, and 7-amino cephalosporanic acid. LaAXE and BhAXE showed the highest activities at pH 7.0 and 8.0 at 50 degrees C, respectively. These enzymes are AXE members of carbohydrate esterase (CE) family 7 with the cephalosporine-C deacetylase activity for the production of antibiotics precursors. The simultaneous treatment of LaAXE with Thermotoga neapolitana beta-xylanase showed 1.44-fold higher synergistic degradation of beechwood xylan than the single treatment of xylanase, whereas BhAXE showed no significant synergism. It was suggested that LaAXE can deacetylate beechwood xylan and enhance the successive accessibility of xylanase towards the resulting substrates. The novel LaAXE originated from a lactic acid bacterium will be utilized for the enzymatic production of D-xylose and xylooligosaccharides.

γ-Glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) catalyzes the cleavage of γ-glutamyl compounds and the transfer of γ-glutamyl moiety to water or to amino acid/peptide acceptors. GGT can be utilized for the generation of γ-glutamyl peptides or glutamic acid, which are used as food taste enhancers. In the present study, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens SMB469 with high GGT activity was isolated from Doenjang, a traditional fermented soy food of Korea. The gene encoding GGT from B. amyloliquefaciens SMB469 (BaGGT469) was cloned from the isolate, and heterologously expressed in E. coli and B. subtilis. For comparison, three additional GGT genes were cloned from B. subtilis 168, B. licheniformis DSM 13, and B. amyloliquefaciens FZB42. The BaGGT469 protein was composed of 591 amino acids. The final protein comprises two separate polypeptide chains of 45.7 and 19.7 kDa, generated via autocatalytic cleavage. The specific activity of BaGGT469 was determined to be 17.8 U/mg with γ-L-glutamyl-p-nitroanilide as the substrate and diglycine as the acceptor. GGTs from B. amyloliquefaciens showed 1.4- and 1.7-fold higher transpeptidase activities than those from B. subtilis and B. licheniformis, respectively. Especially, recombinant B. subtilis expressing BaGGT469 demonstrated 11- and 23-fold higher GGT activity than recombinant E. coli and the native B. amyloliquefaciens, respectively, did. These results suggest that BaGGT469 can be utilized for the enzymatic production of various γ-glutamyl compounds.

Cyclomaltodextrinases (CDases) belong to Glycoside Hydrolases (GH) family 13, which show versatile hydrolyzing and/or transglycosylation activity against cyclodextrin (CD), starch, and pullulan. Especially, some CDases have been reported to hydrolyze acarbose, a potent α-glucosidase inhibitor, and transfer the resulting acarviosine-glucose to various acceptors. In this study, a novel CDase (LPCD) gene was cloned from Lactobacillus plantarum WCFS1, which encodes 574 amino acids (64.6 kDa) and shares less than 44% of identities with the known CDase-family enzymes. Recombinant LPCD with C-terminal six-histidines was produced and purified from Escherichia coli. It showed the highest activity on β-CD at 45°C and pH 5.0, respectively. Gel permeation chromatography analysis revealed that LPCD exists as a dodecameric form (~826 kDa). Its hydrolyzing activity on β- CD is almost same as that on starch, whereas it can hardly attack pullulan. Most interestingly, LPCD catalyzed the unique modes of action in acarbose hydrolysis to produce maltose and acarviosine, as well as to glucose and acarviosineglucose.

An endo-arabinanase (BLABNase) gene from Bacillus licheniformis DSM13 was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli, and the biochemical properties of its encoded enzyme were characterized. The BLABNase gene consists of a single open reading frame of 987 nucleotides that encodes 328 amino acids with a predicted molecular mass of about 36 kDa. BLABNase exhibited the highest activity against debranched α-(1,5)-arabinan in 50 mM sodium acetate buffer (pH 6.0) at 55°C. Enzymatic characterization revealed that BLABNase hydrolyzes debranched or linear arabinans with a much higher activity than branched arabinan from sugar beet. Enzymatic hydrolysis pattern analyses demonstrated BLABNase to be a typical endo-(1,5)-α-s-arabinanase (EC 3.2.1.99) that randomly cleaves the internal α-(1,5)-linked L-arabinofuranosyl residues of a branchless arabinan backbone to release arabinotriose mainly, although a small amount of arabino-oligosaccharide intermediates is also liberated. Our results indicated that BLABNase acts preferentially along with the oligosaccharides longer than arabinopentaose, thus enabling the enzymatic production of various arabino-oligosaccharides.

Min-Jae Lee, Yewon Kang, Byung Sam Son, Min-Jeong Kim, Tae Hyeon Park, Damee Park, and Tae-Jip Kim. J. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2022;32:187-94. https://doi.org/10.4014/jmb.2112.12021