Partially acetylated chitosan oligosaccharides (paCOS) are potent biologics with many potential applications, and their bioactivities are believed to be dependent on their structure, i.e., their degrees of polymerization and acetylation, as well as their pattern of acetylation. However, paCOS generated via chemical N-acetylation or de-N-acetylation of GlcN or GlcNAc oligomers, respectively, typically display random patterns of acetylation, making it difficult to control and predict their bioactivities. In contrast, paCOS produced from chitin deacetylases (CDAs) acting on chitin oligomer substrates may have specific patterns of acetylation, as shown for some bacterial CDAs. However, compared to what we know about bacterial CDAs, we know little about the ability of fungal CDAs to produce defined paCOS with known patterns of acetylation. Therefore, we optimized the expression of a chitin deacetylase from the fungus Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in Escherichia coli. The best yield of functional enzyme was obtained as a fusion protein with the maltose-binding protein (MBP) secreted into the periplasmic space of the bacterial host. We characterized the MBP fusion protein from P. graminis (PgtCDA) and tested its activity on different chitinous substrates. Mass spectrometric sequencing of the products obtained by enzymatic deacetylation of chitin oligomers, i.e., tetramers to hexamers, revealed that PgtCDA generated paCOS with specific acetylation patterns of A-A-D-D, A-A-D-D-D, and A-A-D-D-D-D, respectively (A, GlcNAc; D, GlcN), indicating that PgtCDA cannot deacetylate the two GlcNAc units closest to the oligomer's nonreducing end. This unique property of PgtCDA significantly expands the so far very limited library of well-defined paCOS available to test their bioactivities for a wide variety of potential applications. IMPORTANCEWe successfully achieved heterologous expression of a fungal chitin deacetylase gene from the basidiomycete Puccinia graminis f. sp. tritici in the periplasm of E. coli as a fusion protein with the maltose-binding protein; this strategy allows the production of these difficult-to-express enzymes in sufficient quantities for them to be characterized and optimized through protein engineering. Here, the recombinant enzyme was used to produce partially acetylated chitosan oligosaccharides from chitin oligomers, whereby the pronounced regioselectivity of the enzyme led to the production of defined products with novel patterns of acetylation. This approach widens the scope for both the production and functional analysis of chitosan oligomers and thus will eventually allow the detailed molecular structure-function relationships of biologically active chitosans to be studied, which is essential for developing applications for these functional biopolymers for a circular bioeconomy, e.g., in agriculture, medicine, cosmetics, and food sciences.

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The biotrophic fungus Ustilago maydis harbors a chitin deacetylase (CDA) family of six active genes as well as one pseudogene which are differentially expressed during colonization. This includes one secreted soluble CDA (Cda4) and five putatively glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored CDAs, of which Cda7 belongs to a new class of fungal CDAs. Here, we provide a comprehensive functional study of the entire family. While budding cells of U. maydis showed a discrete pattern of chitosan staining, biotrophic hyphae appeared surrounded by a chitosan layer. We purified all six active CDAs and show their activity on different chitin substrates. Single as well as multiple cda mutants were generated and revealed a virulence defect for mutants lacking cda7. We implicated cda4 in production of the chitosan layer surrounding biotrophic hyphae and demonstrated that the loss of this layer does not reduce virulence. By combining different cda mutations, we detected redundancy as well as specific functions for certain CDAs. Specifically, certain combinations of mutations significantly affected virulence concomitantly with reduced adherence, appressorium formation, penetration, and activation of plant defenses. Attempts to inactivate all seven cda genes simultaneously were unsuccessful, and induced depletion of cda2 in a background lacking the other six cda genes illustrated an essential role of chitosan for cell wall integrity. IMPORTANCE The basidiomycete Ustilago maydis causes smut disease in maize, causing substantial losses in world corn production. This nonobligate pathogen penetrates the plant cell wall with the help of appressoria and then establishes an extensive biotrophic interaction, where the hyphae are tightly encased by the plant plasma membrane. For successful invasion and development in plant tissue, recognition of conserved fungal cell wall components such as chitin by the plant immune system needs to be avoided or suppressed. One strategy to achieve this lies in the modification of chitin to chitosan by chitin deacetylases (CDAs). U. maydis has seven cda genes. This study reveals discrete as well as redundant contributions of these genes to virulence as well as to cell wall integrity. Unexpectedly, the inactivation of all seven genes is not tolerated, revealing an essential role of chitosan for viability.

Chitin, a linear polymer of N-acetyl-d-glucosamine, and chitosans, fully or partially deacetylated derivatives of chitin, are known to elicit defense reactions in higher plants. We compared the ability of chitin and chitosan oligomers and polymers (chitin oligomers with degree of polymerization [DP] 3 to 8; chitosan oligomers with degree of acetylation [DA] 0 to 35% and DP 3 to 15; chitosan polymers with DA 1 to 60% and DP approximately 1,300) to elicit an oxidative burst indicative of induced defense reactions in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Fully deacetylated chitosans were not able to trigger a response; elicitor activity increased with increasing DA of chitosan polymers. Partially acetylated chitosan oligomers required a minimum DP of 6 and at least four N-acetyl groups to trigger a response. Invariably, elicitation of an oxidative burst required the presence of the chitin receptor AtCERK1. Our results as well as previously published studies on chitin and chitosan perception in plants are best explained by a new general model of LysM-containing receptor complexes in which two partners form a long but off-set chitin-binding groove and are, thus, dimerized by one chitin or chitosan molecule, sharing a central GlcNAc unit with which both LysM domains interact. To verify this model and to distinguish it from earlier models, we assayed elicitor and inhibitor activities of selected partially acetylated chitosan oligomers with fully defined structures. In contrast to the initial 'continuous groove', the original 'sandwich', or the current 'sliding mode' models for the chitin/chitosan receptor, the here-proposed 'slipped sandwich' model-which builds on these earlier models and represents a consensus combination of these-is in agreement with all experimental observations.

The last step of cysteine biosynthesis in bacteria and plants is catalyzed by O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase. In bacteria, two isozymes, O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-A and O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-B, have been identified that share similar binding sites, although the respective specific functions are still debated. O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase plays a key role in the adaptation of bacteria to the host environment, in the defense mechanisms to oxidative stress and in antibiotic resistance. Because mammals synthesize cysteine from methionine and lack O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase, the enzyme is a potential target for antimicrobials. With this aim, we first identified potential inhibitors of the two isozymes via a ligand- and structure-based in silico screening of a subset of the ZINC library using FLAP. The binding affinities of the most promising candidates were measured in vitro on purified O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-A and O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-B from Salmonella typhimurium by a direct method that exploits the change in the cofactor fluorescence. Two molecules were identified with dissociation constants of 3.7 and 33 µM for O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-A and O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-B, respectively. Because GRID analysis of the two isoenzymes indicates the presence of a few common pharmacophoric features, cross binding titrations were carried out. It was found that the best binder for O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-B exhibits a dissociation constant of 29 µM for O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-A, thus displaying a limited selectivity, whereas the best binder for O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-A exhibits a dissociation constant of 50 µM for O-acetylserine sulfhydrylase-B and is thus 8-fold selective towards the former isozyme. Therefore, isoform-specific and isoform-independent ligands allow to either selectively target the isozyme that predominantly supports bacteria during infection and long-term survival or to completely block bacterial cysteine biosynthesis.