BackgroundSince chitin is a highly abundant natural biopolymer, many attempts have been made to convert this insoluble polysaccharide into commercially valuable products using chitinases and β-N-acetylglucosaminidases (GlcNAcases). We have previously reported the structure and function of chitinase A from Vibrio harveyi 650. This study t reports the identification of two GlcNAcases from the same organism and their detailed functional characterization.ResultsThe genes encoding two new members of family-20 GlcNAcases were isolated from the genome of V. harveyi 650, cloned and expressed at a high level in E. coli. VhNag1 has a molecular mass of 89 kDa and an optimum pH of 7.5, whereas VhNag2 has a molecular mass of 73 kDa and an optimum pH of 7.0. The recombinant GlcNAcases were found to hydrolyze all the natural substrates, VhNag2 being ten-fold more active than VhNag1. Product analysis by TLC and quantitative HPLC suggested that VhNag2 degraded chitooligosaccharides in a sequential manner, its highest activity being with chitotetraose. Kinetic modeling of the enzymic reaction revealed that binding at subsites (-2) and (+4) had unfavorable (positive) binding free energy changes and that the binding pocket of VhNag2 contains four GlcNAc binding subsites, designated (-1),(+1),(+2), and (+3).ConclusionsTwo novel GlcNAcases were identified as exolytic enzymes that degraded chitin oligosaccharides, releasing GlcNAc as the end product. In living cells, these intracellular enzymes may work after endolytic chitinases to complete chitin degradation. The availability of the two GlcNAcases, together with the previously-reported chitinase A from the same organism, suggests that a systematic development of the chitin-degrading enzymes may provide a valuable tool in commercial chitin bioconversion.

Expression of a class V chitinase gene (At4g19810, AtChiC) in Arabidopsis thaliana was examined by quantitative real-time PCR and by analyzing microarray data available at Genevestigator. The gene expression was induced by the plant stress-related hormones abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) and by the stress resulting from the elicitor flagellin, NaCl, and osmosis. The recombinant AtChiC protein was produced in E. coli, purified, and characterized with respect to the structure and function. The recombinant AtChiC hydrolyzed N-acetylglucosamine oligomers producing dimers from the non-reducing end of the substrates. The crystal structure of AtChiC was determined by the molecular replacement method at 2.0 Å resolution. AtChiC was found to adopt an (β/α)(8) fold with a small insertion domain composed of an α-helix and a five-stranded β-sheet. From docking simulation of AtChiC with pentameric substrate, the amino acid residues responsible for substrate binding were found to be well conserved when compared with those of the class V chitinase from Nicotiana tabacum (NtChiV). All of the structural and functional properties of AtChiC are quite similar to those obtained for NtChiV, and seem to be common to class V chitinases from higher plants.

A class V chitinase from Nicotiana tabacum (NtChiV) with amino acid sequence similar to that of Serratia marcescens chitinase B (SmChiB) was expressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. When N-acetylglucosamine oligosaccharides [(NAG)(n)] were hydrolyzed by the purified NtChiV, the second glycosidic linkage from the non-reducing end was predominantly hydrolyzed in a manner similar to that of SmChiB. NtChiV was shown to hydrolyze partially N-acetylated chitosan non-processively, whereas SmChiB hydrolyzes the same substrate processively. The crystal structure of NtChiV was determined by the single-wavelength anomalous dispersion method at 1.2 Å resolution. The protein adopts a classical (β/α)₈-barrel fold (residues 1-233 and 303-348) with an insertion of a small (α + β) domain (residues 234-302). This is the first crystal structure of a plant class V chitinase. The crystal structure of the inactive mutant NtChiV E115Q complexed with (NAG)₄ was also solved and exhibited a linear conformation of the bound oligosaccharide occupying -2, +1, +2, and +3 subsites. The complex structure corresponds to an initial state of (NAG)₄ binding, which is proposed to be converted into a bent conformation through sliding of the +1, +2, and +3 sugar units to -1, +1, and +2 subsites. Although NtChiV is similar to SmChiB, the chitin-binding domain is present in the C-terminus of the latter, but not in the former. Aromatic amino acid residues found in the substrate binding cleft of SmChiB, including Trp97, are substituted with aliphatic residues in NtChiV. These structural differences appear to be responsible for NtChiV being a non-processive enzyme.

A tryptophan side chain was introduced into subsite +1 of family GH-18 (class V) chitinases from Nicotiana tabacum and Arabidopsis thaliana (NtChiV and AtChiC, respectively) by the mutation of a glycine residue to tryptophan (G74W-NtChiV and G75W-AtChiC). The specific activity toward glycol chitin of the two mutant enzymes was 70-71% of that of the wild type. Using chitin oligosaccharides, (GlcNAc)(n) (n = 4, 5 and 6), as the substrates, we found the transglycosylation reaction to be significantly enhanced in G74W-NtChiV and G75W-AtChiC when compared with the corresponding wild-type enzymes. The introduced tryptophan side chain might protect the oxazolinium ion intermediate from attack by a nucleophilic water molecule. The enhancement of transglycosylation activity was much more distinct in G75W-AtChiC than in G74W-NtChiV. Nuclear magnetic resonance titration experiments using the inactive double mutants, E115Q/G74W-NtChiV and E116Q/G75W-AtChiC revealed that the association constant of (GlcNAc)(5) was considerably larger for the latter. Amino acid substitutions at the acceptor binding site might have resulted in the larger association constant for G75W-AtChiC, giving rise to the higher transglycosylation activity of G75W-AtChiC.

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