Carbonic anhydrase enzymes catalyse the reversible hydration of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate. A thermophilic Thermovibrio ammonificans α-carbonic anhydrase (TaCA) has been expressed in Escherichia coli and structurally and biochemically characterized. The crystal structure of TaCA has been determined in its native form and in two complexes with bound inhibitors. The tetrameric enzyme is stabilized by a unique core in the centre of the molecule formed by two intersubunit disulfides and a single lysine residue from each monomer that is involved in intersubunit ionic interactions. The structure of this core protects the intersubunit disulfides from reduction, whereas the conserved intrasubunit disulfides are not formed in the reducing environment of the E. coli host cytosol. When oxidized to mimic the environment of the periplasmic space, TaCA has increased thermostability, retaining 90% activity after incubation at 70°C for 1 h, making it a good candidate for industrial carbon-dioxide capture. The reduction of all TaCA cysteines resulted in dissociation of the tetrameric molecule into monomers with lower activity and reduced thermostability. Unlike other characterized α-carbonic anhydrases, TaCA does not display esterase activity towards p-nitrophenyl acetate, which appears to result from the increased rigidity of its protein scaffold.

The crystal structures and inhibitor complexes of two industrially important !-aminotransferase enzymes from Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Chromobacterium violaceum have been determined in order to understand the differences in their substrate specificity. The two enzymes share 30% sequence identity and use the same amino acceptor, pyruvate; however, the Pseudomonas enzyme shows activity towards the amino donor -alanine, whilst the Chromobacterium enzyme does not. Both enzymes show activity towards S--methylbenzylamine (MBA), with the Chromobacterium enzyme having a broader substrate range. The crystal structure of the P. aeruginosa enzyme has been solved in the holo form and with the inhibitor gabaculine bound. The C. violaceum enzyme has been solved in the apo and holo forms and with gabaculine bound. The structures of the holo forms of both enzymes are quite similar. There is little conformational difference observed between the inhibitor complex and the holoenzyme for the P. aeruginosa aminotransferase. In comparison, the crystal structure of the C. violaceum gabaculine complex shows significant structural rearrangements from the structures of both the apo and holo forms of the enzyme. It appears that the different rigidity of the protein scaffold contributes to the substrate specificity observed for the two !-aminotransferases.

The epoxide hydrolases (EHs) represent an attractive option for the synthesis of chiral epoxides and 1,2-diols which are valuable building blocks for the synthesis of several pharmaceutical compounds. A metagenomic approach has been used to identify two new members of the atypical EH limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase (LEH) family of enzymes. These two LEHs (Tomsk-LEH and CH55-LEH) show EH activities towards different epoxide substrates, differing in most cases from those previously identified for Rhodococcus erythropolis (Re-LEH) in terms of stereoselectivity. Tomsk-LEH and CH55-LEH, both from thermophilic sources, have higher optimal temperatures and apparent melting temperatures than Re-LEH. The new LEH enzymes have been crystallized and their structures solved to high resolution in the native form and in complex with the inhibitor valpromide for Tomsk-LEH and poly(ethylene glycol) for CH55-LEH. The structural analysis has provided insights into the LEH mechanism, substrate specificity and stereoselectivity of these new LEH enzymes, which has been supported by mutagenesis studies. DatabaseThe atomic coordinates and structure factors of the crystal structures have been deposited in the Protein Data Bank with the codes 5AIF (Tomsk-LEH native structure), 5AIG (Tomsk-LEH valpromide complex), 5AIH (CH55-LEH native structure) and 5AII (CH55-LEH PEG complex). Nucleotide sequence data are available in the GenBank databases under the accession numbers KP765711 (Tomsk-LEH) and KP765710 (CH55-LEH).Abbreviations CH55-LEH, limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase from the metagenomic DNA from the Chinese sample; de, diastereomeric excess; ee, enantiomeric excess; EH, epoxide hydrolase; LEH, limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase; Mt-LEH, Mycobacterium tuberculosis limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase; PEG, poly(ethylene glycol); Re-LEH, Rhodococcus erythropolis limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase; Tomsk-LEH, limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase from the metagenomic DNA from the Tomsk sample.

During the last decade the use of transaminases for the production of pharmaceutical and fine chemical intermediates has attracted a great deal of attention. Transaminases are versatile biocatalysts for the efficient production of amine intermediates and many have (S)-enantiospecificity. Transaminases with (R)-specificity are needed to expand the applications of these enzymes in biocatalysis. In this work we have identified a fungal putative (R)-specific transaminase from the Eurotiomycetes Nectria haematococca, cloned a synthetic version of this gene, demonstrated (R)-selective deamination of several substrates including (R)-α-methylbenzylamine, as well as production of (R)-amines, and determined its crystal structure. The crystal structures of the holoenzyme and the complex with an inhibitor gabaculine offer the first detailed insight into the structural basis for substrate specificity and enantioselectivity of the industrially important class of (R)-selective amine : pyruvate transaminases.DatabaseThe atomic coordinates and structure factors for the Nectria TAm in holoenzyme and gabaculine-bound forms have been deposited in the PDB as entries 4cmd and 4cmf respectively.Structured digital abstract• TAm and TAm bind by x-ray crystallography (View interaction)

With the ultimate goal of identifying robust cellulases for industrial biocatalytic conversions, we have isolated and characterized a new thermostable and very halotolerant GH5 cellulase. This new enzyme, termed CelDZ1, was identified by bioinformatic analysis from the genome of a polysaccharide-enrichment culture isolate, initiated from material collected from an Icelandic hot spring. Biochemical characterization of CelDZ1 revealed that it is a glycoside hydrolase with optimal activity at 70°C and pH 5.0 that exhibits good thermostability, high halotolerance at near-saturating salt concentrations, and resistance towards metal ions and other denaturing agents. X-ray crystallography of the new enzyme showed that CelDZ1 is the first reported cellulase structure that lacks the defined sugar-binding 2 subsite and revealed structural features which provide potential explanations of its biochemical characteristics.