Rajat Sapra

Targeted Discovery of Glycoside Hydrolases from a Switchgrass-Adapted Compost Community

Development of cellulosic biofuels from non-food crops is currently an area of intense research interest. Tailoring depolymerizing enzymes to particular feedstocks and pretreatment conditions is one promising avenue of research in this area. Here we added a green-waste compost inoculum to switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) and simulated thermophilic composting in a bioreactor to select for a switchgrass-adapted community and to facilitate targeted discovery of glycoside hydrolases. Small-subunit (SSU) rRNA-based community profiles revealed that the microbial community changed dramatically between the initial and switchgrass-adapted compost (SAC) with some bacterial populations being enriched over 20-fold. We obtained 225 Mbp of 454-titanium pyrosequence data from the SAC community and conservatively identified 800 genes encoding glycoside hydrolase domains that were biased toward depolymerizing grass cell wall components. Of these, ∼10% were putative cellulases mostly belonging to families GH5 and GH9. We synthesized two SAC GH9 genes with codon optimization for heterologous expression in Escherichia coli and observed activity for one on carboxymethyl cellulose. The active GH9 enzyme has a temperature optimum of 50°C and pH range of 5.5 to 8 consistent with the composting conditions applied. We demonstrate that microbial communities adapt to switchgrass decomposition using simulated composting condition and that full-length genes can be identified from complex metagenomic sequence data, synthesized and expressed resulting in active enzyme.

Genome scale enzyme–metabolite and drug–target interaction predictions using the signature molecular descriptor

MOTIVATION Identifying protein enzymatic or pharmacological activities are important areas of research in biology and chemistry. Biological and chemical databases are increasingly being populated with linkages between protein sequences and chemical structures. There is now sufficient information to apply machine-learning techniques to predict interactions between chemicals and proteins at a genome scale. Current machine-learning techniques use as input either protein sequences and structures or chemical information. We propose here a method to infer protein-chemical interactions using heterogeneous input consisting of both protein sequence and chemical information. RESULTS Our method relies on expressing proteins and chemicals with a common cheminformatics representation. We demonstrate our approach by predicting whether proteins can catalyze reactions not present in training sets. We also predict whether a given drug can bind a target, in the absence of prior binding information for that drug and target. Such predictions cannot be made with current machine-learning techniques requiring binding information for individual reactions or individual targets.

Analysis of Metabolic Pathways and Fluxes in a Newly Discovered Thermophilic and Ethanol-Tolerant Geobacillus Strain

A recently discovered thermophilic bacterium, Geobacillus thermoglucosidasius M10EXG, ferments a range of C5 (e.g., xylose) and C6 sugars (e.g., glucose) and is tolerant to high ethanol concentrations (10%, v/v). We have investigated the central metabolism of this bacterium using both in vitro enzyme assays and 13C‐based flux analysis to provide insights into the physiological properties of this extremophile and explore its metabolism for bio‐ethanol or other bioprocess applications. Our findings show that glucose metabolism in G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG proceeds via glycolysis, the pentose phosphate pathway, and the TCA cycle; the Entner–Doudoroff pathway and transhydrogenase activity were not detected. Anaplerotic reactions (including the glyoxylate shunt, pyruvate carboxylase, and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase) were active, but fluxes through those pathways could not be accurately determined using amino acid labeling. When growth conditions were switched from aerobic to micro‐aerobic conditions, fluxes (based on a normalized glucose uptake rate of 100 units (g DCW)−1 h−1) through the TCA cycle and oxidative pentose phosphate pathway were reduced from 64 ± 3 to 25 ± 2 and from 30 ± 2 to 19 ± 2, respectively. The carbon flux under micro‐aerobic growth was directed to ethanol, L‐lactate (>99% optical purity), acetate, and formate. Under fully anerobic conditions, G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG used a mixed acid fermentation process and exhibited a maximum ethanol yield of 0.38 ± 0.07 mol mol−1 glucose. In silico flux balance modeling demonstrates that lactate and acetate production from G. thermoglucosidasius M10EXG reduces the maximum ethanol yield by approximately threefold, thus indicating that both pathways should be modified to maximize ethanol production. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2009;102: 1377–1386.

Biochemical characterization and crystal structure of endoglucanase Cel5A from the hyperthermophilic Thermotoga maritima

Tm_Cel5A, which belongs to family 5 of the glycoside hydrolases, is an extremely stable enzyme among the endo-acting glycosidases present in the hyperthermophilic organism Thermotoga maritima. Members of GH5 family shows a common (β/α)(8) TIM-barrel fold in which the catalytic acid/base and nucleophile are located on strands β-4 and β-7 of the barrel fold. Thermally resistant cellulases are desirable for lignocellulosic biofuels production and the Tm_Cel5A is an excellent candidate for use in the degradation of polysaccharides present on biomass. This paper describes two Tm_Cel5A structures (crystal forms I and II) solved at 2.20 and 1.85Å resolution, respectively. Our analyses of the Tm_Cel5A structure and comparison to a mesophilic GH5 provides a basis for the thermostability associated with Tm_Cel5A. Furthermore, both crystal forms of Tm_Cel5A possess a cadmium (Cd(2+)) ion bound between the two catalytic residues. Activity assays of Tm_Cel5A confirmed a strong inhibition effect in the presence of Cd(2+) metal ions demonstrating competition with the natural substrate for the active site. Based on the structural information we have obtained for Tm_Cel5A, protein bioengineering can be used to potentially increase the thermostability of mesophilic cellulase enzymes.

Structure of endoglucanase Cel9A from the thermoacidophilic Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius

The production of biofuels using biomass is an alternative route to support the growing global demand for energy and to also reduce the environmental problems caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Cellulases are likely to play an important role in the degradation of biomass and the production of sugars for subsequent fermentation to fuel. Here, the crystal structure of an endoglucanase, Cel9A, from Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius (Aa_Cel9A) is reported which displays a modular architecture composed of an N-terminal Ig-like domain connected to the catalytic domain. This paper describes the overall structure and the detailed contacts between the two modules. Analysis suggests that the interaction involving the residues Gln13 (from the Ig-like module) and Phe439 (from the catalytic module) is important in maintaining the correct conformation of the catalytic module required for protein activity. Moreover, the Aa_Cel9A structure shows three metal-binding sites that are associated with the thermostability and/or substrate affinity of the enzyme.

Enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose by the cellobiohydrolase domain of CelB from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus

The celB gene of Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus was cloned and expressed in Escherichia coli to create a recombinant biocatalyst for hydrolyzing lignocellulosic biomass at high temperature. The GH5 domain of CelB hydrolyzed 4-nitrophenyl-β-D-cellobioside and carboxymethyl cellulose with optimum activity at pH 4.7-5.5 and 80°C. The recombinant GH5 and CBM3-GH5 constructs were both stable at 80°C with half-lives of 23 h and 39 h, respectively, and retained >94% activity after 48 h at 70°C. Enzymatic hydrolysis of corn stover and cellulose pretreated with the ionic liquid 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate showed that GH5 and CBM3-GH5 primarily produce cellobiose, with product yields for CBM3-GH5 being 1.2- to 2-fold higher than those for GH5. Confocal microscopy of bound protein on cellulose confirmed tighter binding of CBM3-GH5 to cellulose than GH5, indicating that the enhancement of enzymatic activity on solid substrates may be due to the substrate binding activity of CBM3 domain.

Improved Activity of a Thermophilic Cellulase, Cel5A, from Thermotoga maritima on Ionic Liquid Pretreated Switchgrass

Ionic liquid pretreatment of biomass has been shown to greatly reduce the recalcitrance of lignocellulosic biomass, resulting in improved sugar yields after enzymatic saccharification. However, even under these improved saccharification conditions the cost of enzymes still represents a significant proportion of the total cost of producing sugars and ultimately fuels from lignocellulosic biomass. Much of the high cost of enzymes is due to the low catalytic efficiency and stability of lignocellulolytic enzymes, especially cellulases, under conditions that include high temperatures and the presence of residual pretreatment chemicals, such as acids, organic solvents, bases, or ionic liquids. Improving the efficiency of the saccharification process on ionic liquid pretreated biomass will facilitate reduced enzyme loading and cost. Thermophilic cellulases have been shown to be stable and active in ionic liquids but their activity is typically at lower levels. Cel5A_Tma, a thermophilic endoglucanase from Thermotoga maritima, is highly active on cellulosic substrates and is stable in ionic liquid environments. Here, our motivation was to engineer mutants of Cel5A_Tma with higher activity on 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium acetate ([C2mim][OAc]) pretreated biomass. We developed a robotic platform to screen a random mutagenesis library of Cel5A_Tma. Twelve mutants with 25–42% improvement in specific activity on carboxymethyl cellulose and up to 30% improvement on ionic-liquid pretreated switchgrass were successfully isolated and characterized from a library of twenty thousand variants. Interestingly, most of the mutations in the improved variants are located distally to the active site on the protein surface and are not directly involved with substrate binding.

Molecular simulations provide new insights into the role of the accessory immunoglobulin-like domain of Cel9A

Cel9A from the thermoacidophilic bacterium Alicyclobacillus acidocaldarius belongs to the subfamily E1 of family 9 glycoside hydrolases, many members of which have an N‐terminal Ig‐like domain followed by the catalytic domain. The Ig‐like domain is not directly involved in either carbohydrate binding or biocatalysis; however, deletion of the Ig‐domain promotes loss of enzymatic activity. We have investigated the functional role of the Ig‐like domain using molecular dynamics simulations. Our simulations indicate that residues within the Ig‐like domain are dynamically correlated with residues in the carbohydrate‐binding pocket and with key catalytic residues of Cel9A. Free energy perturbation simulations indicate that the Ig‐like domain stabilizes the catalytic domain and may be responsible for the enhanced thermostability of Cel9A.

Microfluidic glycosyl hydrolase screening for biomass-to-biofuel conversion.

The hydrolysis of biomass to fermentable sugars using glycosyl hydrolases such as cellulases and hemicellulases is a limiting and costly step in the conversion of biomass to biofuels. Enhancement in hydrolysis efficiency is necessary and requires improvement in both enzymes and processing strategies. Advances in both areas in turn strongly depend on the progress in developing high-throughput assays to rapidly and quantitatively screen a large number of enzymes and processing conditions. For example, the characterization of various cellodextrins and xylooligomers produced during the time course of saccharification is important in the design of suitable reactors, enzyme cocktail compositions, and biomass pretreatment schemes. We have developed a microfluidic-chip-based assay for rapid and precise characterization of glycans and xylans resulting from biomass hydrolysis. The technique enables multiplexed separation of soluble cellodextrins and xylose oligomers in around 1 min (10-fold faster than HPLC). The microfluidic device was used to elucidate the mode of action of Tm_Cel5A, a novel cellulase from hyperthermophile Thermotoga maritima . The results demonstrate that the cellulase is active at 80 °C and effectively hydrolyzes cellodextrins and ionic-liquid-pretreated switchgrass and Avicel to glucose, cellobiose, and cellotriose. The proposed microscale approach is ideal for quantitative large-scale screening of enzyme libraries for biomass hydrolysis, for development of energy feedstocks, and for polysaccharide sequencing.

A Microscale Platform for Integrated Cell-Free Expression and Activity Screening of Cellulases

Recent advances in production of cellulases by genetic engineering and isolation from natural microbial communities have necessitated the development of high-throughput analytical technologies for cellulase expression and screening. We have developed a novel cost-effective microscale approach based on in vitro protein synthesis, which seamlessly integrates cellulase expression with activity screening without the need for any protein purification procedures. Our platform achieves the entire process of transcription, translation, and activity screening within 2-3 hours in microwell arrays compared with days needed for conventional cell-based cellulase expression, purification, and activity screening. Highly sensitive fluorescence-based detection permits activity screening in volumes as low as 2-3 μL with minimal evaporation (even at temperatures as high as 95 °C) leading to two orders of magnitude reduction in reagent usage and cost. The platform was used for rapid expression and screening of β-glucosidases (BGs) and cellobiohydrolases (CBHs) isolated from thermophilic microorganisms. Furthermore, it was also used to determine optimum temperatures for BG and CBH activities and to study product inhibition of CBHs. The approach described here is well suited for first-pass screening of large libraries to identify cellulases with desired properties that can subsequently be produced on a large scale for detailed structural and functional characterization.