Intercalation of the disulfide bond between the A2 and A4 loop of
cellobiohydrolase (Cel7A) of Aspergillus fumigatus enhances catalytic
activity and thermostability.
Abstract
Disulfide bonds maintain the proper structural conformation and
stability of the protein. Introduction of new disulfide bonds or
disulfide bonds engineering is a promising strategy of rational protein
designing that has been applied to improve the stability of various
proteins. In this work, we have applied this approach to an industrially
important enzyme Glycoside Hydrolase family GH 7 cellobiohydrolase (GH7
CBHs) or Cel7A of our locally isolated strain of thermophilic fungus
Aspergillus fumigatus ( AfCel7A). Disulfide by Design 2.0
(DbD2), a web-based tool for mutation site detection in proteins, used
and created four mutations (T416C-I432C, G460C-G465C, D276C-G279C, and
D322C-G327C) in the peripheral loops but outside of the catalytic
region. The disulfide bond (T416C-I432C) formed between the A2 and A4
loop showed higher thermostability (70% activity at 70
0C), higher substrate affinity (K m=
0.081mM) and higher catalytic activity (Kcat =9.75 min
-1; Kcat/Km = 120.37 mM min -1) than
wild type AfCel7A (50% activity at 70 0C; K
m= 0.128mM; Kcat = 4.833 min -1;
Kcat/Km = 37.75 mM min -1). Whereas the other three
mutants with high B factor showed the loss of thermostability and loss
of catalytic activity compared to the wild type. This is the first
report of the gain of function of both thermostability and enzyme
activity of cellobiohydrolase Cel7A by disulfide bond engineering.
Further, comparative molecular dynamics simulations revealed that the
variant T416C-I432C is comparatively less flexible (RMSD) than both wild
type and other variants at 300K, 325K. However, increased flexibility at
tunnel entrance (RMSF at 300K and 325K) may responsible for the gain of
catalytic activity and the formation of more hydrogen bonds while
binding with cellobiose may responsible for the increase of substrate
affinity.