The extracellular medium-chain-length polyhydroxyalkanoate (MCL-PHA) depolymerase of Pseudomonas fluorescens GK13 catalyzes the hydrolysis of poly(3-hydroxyoctanoic acid) [P(3HO)]. Based on the strong tendency of the enzyme to interact with hydrophobic materials, a low-cost method which allows the rapid and easy purification and immobilization of the enzyme has been developed. Thus, the extracellular P(3HO) depolymerase present in the culture broth of cells of P. fluorescens GK13 grown on mineral medium supplemented with P(3HO) as the sole carbon and energy source has been tightly adsorbed onto a commercially available polypropylene support (Accurel MP-1000) with high yield and specificity. The activity of the pure enzyme was enhanced by the presence of detergents and organic solvents, and it was retained after treatment with an SDS-denaturing cocktail under both reducing and nonreducing conditions. The time course of the P(3HO) hydrolysis catalyzed by the soluble and immobilized enzyme has been assessed, and the resulting products have been identified. After 24 h of hydrolysis, the dimeric ester of 3-HO [(R)-3-HO-HO] was obtained as the main product of the soluble enzyme. However, the immobilized enzyme catalyzes almost the complete hydrolysis of P(3HO) polymer to (R)-3-HO monomers under the same conditions.
c Nineteen medium-chain-length (mcl) poly(3-hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA)-degrading microorganisms were isolated from natural sources. From them, seven Gram-positive and three Gram-negative bacteria were identified. The ability of these microorganisms to hydrolyze other biodegradable plastics, such as short-chain-length (scl) PHA, poly(-caprolactone) (PCL), poly(ethylene succinate) (PES), and poly(L-lactide) (PLA), has been studied. On the basis of the great ability to degrade different polyesters, Streptomyces roseolus SL3 was selected, and its extracellular depolymerase was biochemically characterized. The enzyme consisted of one polypeptide chain of 28 kDa with a pI value of 5.2. Its maximum activity was observed at pH 9.5 with chromogenic substrates. The purified enzyme hydrolyzed mcl PHA and PCL but not scl PHA, PES, and PLA. Moreover, the mcl PHA depolymerase can hydrolyze various substrates for esterases, such as tributyrin and p-nitrophenyl (pNP)-alkanoates, with its maximum activity being measured with pNP-octanoate. Interestingly, when poly(3-hydroxyoctanoate-co-3-hydroxyhexanoate [11%]) was used as the substrate, the main hydrolysis product was the monomer (R)-3-hydroxyoctanoate. In addition, the genes of several Actinobacteria strains, including S. roseolus SL3, were identified on the basis of the peptide de novo sequencing of the Streptomyces venezuelae SO1 mcl PHA depolymerase by tandem mass spectrometry. These enzymes did not show significant similarity to mcl PHA depolymerases characterized previously. Our results suggest that these distinct enzymes might represent a new subgroup of mcl PHA depolymerases.
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