Santosh Kumar Padhi

The alpha/beta-hydrolase fold 3DM database (ABHDB) as a tool for protein engineering.

Aligning the haystack to expose the needle: The 3DM method was used to generate a comprehensive database of the a/s-hydrolase fold enzyme superfamily. This database facilitates the analysis of structure–function relationships and enables novel insights into this superfamily to be made. In addition high-quality libraries for protein engineering can be easily designed.

Protein engineering of α/β-hydrolase fold enzymes.

The superfamily of α/β‐hydrolase fold enzymes is one of the largest known protein families, including a broad range of synthetically useful enzymes such as lipases, esterases, amidases, hydroxynitrile lyases, epoxide hydrolases and dehalogenases. This minireview covers methods developed for efficient protein engineering of these enzymes. Special emphasis is placed on the alteration of enzyme properties such as substrate range, thermostability and enantioselectivity for their application in biocatalysis. In addition, concepts for the investigation of the evolutionary relationship between the different members of this protein superfamily are covered, together with successful examples.

Switching from an Esterase to a Hydroxynitrile Lyase Mechanism Requires Only Two Amino Acid Substitutions

The alpha/beta hydrolase superfamily contains mainly esterases, which catalyze hydrolysis, but also includes hydroxynitrile lyases, which catalyze addition of cyanide to aldehydes, a carbon-carbon bond formation. Here, we convert a plant esterase, SABP2, into a hydroxynitrile lyase using just two amino acid substitutions. Variant SABP2-G12T-M239K lost the ability to catalyze ester hydrolysis (<0.9 mU/mg) and gained the ability to catalyze the release of cyanide from mandelonitrile (20 mU/mg, k(cat)/K(M) = 70 min(-1)M(-1)). This variant also catalyzed the reverse reaction, formation of mandelonitrile with low enantioselectivity: 20% ee (S), E = 1.5. The specificity constant for the lysis of mandelontrile is 13,000-fold faster than the uncatalyzed reaction and only 1300-fold less efficient (k(cat/)K(M)) than hydroxynitrile lyase from rubber tree.

Uncovering divergent evolution of α/β-hydrolases: a surprising residue substitution needed to convert Hevea brasiliensis hydroxynitrile lyase into an esterase

Hevea brasiliensis hydroxynitrile lyase (HbHNL) and salicylic acid binding protein 2 (SABP2, an esterase) share 45% amino acid sequence identity, the same protein fold, and even the same catalytic triad of Ser-His-Asp. However, they catalyze different reactions: cleavage of hydroxynitriles and hydrolysis of esters, respectively. To understand how other active site differences in the two enzymes enable the same catalytic triad to catalyze different reactions, we substituted amino acid residues in HbHNL with the corresponding residues from SABP2, expecting hydroxynitrile lyase activity to decrease and esterase activity to increase. Previous mechanistic studies and x-ray crystallography suggested that esterase activity requires removal of an active site lysine and threonine from the hydroxynitrile lyase. The Thr11Gly Lys236Gly substitutions in HbHNL reduced hydroxynitrile lyase activity for cleavage of mandelonitrile 100-fold, but increased esterase activity only threefold to kcat ~ 0.1 min-1 for hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl acetate. Adding a third substitution - Glu79His - increased esterase activity more than tenfold to kcat ~ 1.6 min-1. The specificity constant (kcat/KM) for this triple substitution variant versus wild type HbHNL shifted more than one million-fold from hydroxynitrile lyase activity (acetone cyanohydrin substrate) to esterase activity (p-nitrophenyl acetate substrate). The contribution of Glu79His to esterase activity was surprising since esterases and lipases contain many different amino acids at this position, including glutamate. Saturation mutagenesis at position 79 showed that 13 of 19 possible amino acid substitutions increased esterase activity, suggesting that removal of glutamate, not addition of histidine, increased esterase activity. Molecular modeling indicates that Glu79 disrupts esterase activity in HbHNL when its negatively charged side chain distorts the orientation of the catalytic histidine. Naturally occurring glutamate at the corresponding location of Candida lipases is uncharged due to other active site differences and does not cause the same distortion. This example of the fine tuning of the same catalytic triad for different types of catalysis by subtle interactions with other active site residues shows how difficult it is to design new catalytic reactions of enzymes.

Modern Approaches to Discovering New Hydroxynitrile Lyases for Biocatalysis

Hydroxynitrile lyases (HNLs) have grown in importance from laboratory to industry due to their potential to catalyze stereoselective C−C bond‐formation reactions in the synthesis of several chiral intermediates, such as enantiopure α‐cyanohydrins, β‐nitro alcohols, and their derivatives with multiple functional groups. With these wide applications, the demand for finding new HNLs has increased, and this has led to exploration not only of new HNLs but also of new ways to discover them. An exclusive review article on HNLs by Asano et al. in 2011 described the discovery of HNLs along with their applications. Since then many scientific advancements have been seen in this area. This article aims to highlight the modern HNL discovery approaches, based mainly on 1) genome mining, 2) use of INTMSAlign software, 3) rational design (based on a millipede HNL), 4) evolution of catalytic mechanisms, 5) protein engineering guided by catalytic mechanisms, and 6) screening of plants with cyanogen glycoside (CG) content. This description is followed by future prospects. Overall this review represents the present state and the future potential of HNL discovery approaches, and so might be hoped to be instrumental not only in exploration of new HNLs but also in the invention of methods for potential biotechnological applications.