Marine mud is an abundant and largely unexplored source of enzymes with unique properties that may be useful for industrial and biotechnological purposes. However, since most microbes cannot be cultured in the laboratory, a cultivation-independent metagenomic approach would be advantageous for the identification of novel enzymes. Therefore, with the objective of screening novel lipolytic enzymes, a metagenomic library was constructed using the total genomic DNA extracted from marine mud. Based on functional heterologous expression, 34 clones that showed lipolytic activity were isolated. The five clones with the largest halos were identified, and the corresponding genes were successfully overexpressed in Escherichia coli. Molecular analysis revealed that these encoded proteins showed 48–79 % similarity with other proteins in the GenBank database. Multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic tree analysis classified these five protein sequences as new members of known families of bacterial lipolytic enzymes. Among them, EST4, which has 316 amino acids with a predicted molecular weight of 33.8 kDa, was further studied in detail due to its strong hydrolytic activity. Characterization of EST4 indicated that it is an alkaline esterase that exhibits highest hydrolytic activity towards p-nitrophenyl butyrate (specific activity: 1389 U mg−1) at 45 °C and pH 8.0. The half-life of EST4 is 55 and 46 h at 40 and 45 °C, respectively, indicating a relatively high thermostability. EST4 also showed remarkable stability in organic solvents, retaining 90 % of its initial activity when incubated for 12 h in the presence of hydrophobic alkanes. Furthermore, EST4 was used as an efficient whole-cell biocatalyst for the synthesis of short-chain flavor esters, showing high conversion rate and good tolerance for high substrate concentrations (up to 3.0 M). These results demonstrate a promising potential for industrial scaling-up to produce short-chain flavor esters at high substrate concentrations in non-aqueous media. This manuscript reports unprecedented alcohol tolerance and conversion of an esterase biocatalyst identified from a marine mud metagenomic library. The high organic solvent tolerance and thermostability of EST4 suggest that it has great potential as a biocatalyst.

α-Amylase plays a pivotal role in a broad range of industrial processes. To meet increasing demands of biocatalytic tasks, considerable efforts have been made to isolate enzymes produced by extremophiles. However, the relevant data of α-amylases from cold-adapted fungi are still insufficient. In addition, bread quality presents a particular interest due to its high consummation. Thus developing amylases to improve textural properties could combine health benefits with good sensory properties. Furthermore, iron oxide nanoparticles provide an economical and convenient method for separation of biomacromolecules. In order to maximize the catalytic efficiency of α-amylase and support further applications, a comprehensive characterization of magnetic immobilization of α-amylase is crucial and needed. A novel α-amylase (AmyA1) containing an open reading frame of 1482 bp was cloned from Antarctic psychrotolerant fungus G. pannorum and then expressed in the newly constructed Aspergillus oryzae system. The purified recombinant AmyA1 was approximate 52 kDa. AmyA1 was optimally active at pH 5.0 and 40 °C, and retained over 20% of maximal activity at 0–20 °C. The K m and V max values toward soluble starch were 2.51 mg/mL and 8.24 × 10−2 mg/(mL min) respectively, with specific activity of 12.8 × 103 U/mg. AmyA1 presented broad substrate specificity, and the main hydrolysis products were glucose, maltose, and maltotetraose. The influence of AmyA1 on the quality of bread was further investigated. The application study shows a 26% increase in specific volume, 14.5% increase in cohesiveness and 14.1% decrease in gumminess in comparison with the control. AmyA1 was immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles and characterized. The immobilized enzyme showed improved thermostability and enhanced pH tolerance under neutral conditions. Also, magnetically immobilized AmyA1 can be easily recovered and reused for maximum utilization. A novel α-amylase (AmyA1) from Antarctic psychrotolerant fungus was cloned, heterologous expression in Aspergillus oryzae, and characterized. The detailed report of the enzymatic properties of AmyA1 gives new insights into fungal cold-adapted amylase. Application study showed potential value of AmyA1 in the food and starch fields. In addition, AmyA1 was immobilized on magnetic nanoparticles and characterized. The improved stability and longer service life of AmyA1 could potentially benefit industrial applications.

Background: A nitrilase-mediated pathway has significant advantages in the production of optically pure (R)-(−)-mandelic acid. However, unwanted byproduct, low enantioselectivity, and specific activity reduce its value in practical applications. An ideal nitrilase that can efficiently hydrolyze mandelonitrile to optically pure (R)-(−)-mandelic acid without the unwanted byproduct is needed. Results: A novel nitrilase (BCJ2315) was discovered from Burkholderia cenocepacia J2315 through phylogeny-based enzymatic substrate specificity prediction (PESSP). This nitrilase is a mandelonitrile hydrolase that could efficiently hydrolyze mandelonitrile to (R)-(−)-mandelic acid, with a high enantiomeric excess of 98.4%. No byproduct was observed in this hydrolysis process. BCJ2315 showed the highest identity of 71% compared with other nitrilases in the amino acid sequence. BCJ2315 possessed the highest activity toward mandelonitrile and took mandelonitrile as the optimal substrate based on the analysis of substrate specificity. The kinetic parameters V _max, K _m, K _cat, and K _cat/K _m toward mandelonitrile were 45.4 μmol/min/mg, 0.14 mM, 15.4 s^-1, and 1.1×10⁵ M^-1s^-1, respectively. The recombinant Escherichia coli M15/BCJ2315 had a strong substrate tolerance and could completely hydrolyze mandelonitrile (100 mM) with fewer amounts of wet cells (10 mg/ml) within 1 h. Conclusions: PESSP is an efficient method for discovering an ideal mandelonitrile hydrolase. BCJ2315 has high affinity and catalytic efficiency toward mandelonitrile. This nitrilase has great advantages in the production of optically pure (R)-(−)-mandelic acid because of its high activity and enantioselectivity, strong substrate tolerance, and having no unwanted byproduct. Thus, BCJ2315 has great potential in the practical production of optically pure (R)-(−)-mandelic acid in the industry.

Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) together with the economical substrate-coupled cofactor regeneration system play a pivotal role in the asymmetric synthesis of chiral alcohols; however, severe challenges concerning the poor tolerance of enzymes to 2-propanol and the adverse effects of the by-product, acetone, limit its applications, causing this strategy to lapse. Herein, a novel ADH gene smadh2 was identified from Stenotrophomonas maltophilia by traditional genome mining technology. The gene was cloned into Escherichia coli cells and then expressed to yield SmADH2. SmADH2 has a broad substrate spectrum and exhibits excellent tolerance and superb activity to 2-propanol even at 10.5 M (80%, v/v) concentration. Moreover, a new thermostatic bubble column reactor (TBCR) system is successfully designed to alleviate the inhibition of the by-product acetone by gas flow and continuously supplement 2-propanol. The organic waste can be simultaneously recovered for the purpose of green synthesis. In the sustainable system, structurally diverse chiral alcohols are synthesised at a high substrate loading (>150 g L⁻¹) without adding external coenzymes. Among these, about 780 g L⁻¹ (6 M) ethyl acetoacetate is completely converted into ethyl (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate in only 2.5 h with 99.9% ee and 7488 g L⁻¹ d⁻¹ space–time yield. Molecular dynamics simulation results shed light on the high catalytic activity toward the substrate. Therefore, the high 2-propanol tolerance SmADH2 with the TBCR system proves to be a potent biocatalytic strategy for the synthesis of chiral alcohols on an industrial scale.