Characterization of a Novel Superoxide Dismutase from a Deep-sea Sea Cucumber (Psychoropotes verruciaudatus)

Abstract

At present, deep-sea enzymes are a research hotspot. In this study, a novel copper–zinc superoxide dismutase (CuZnSOD) was successfully cloned and characterized from a new species of sea cucumber Psychropotes verruciaudatus (PVCuZnSOD). The relative molecular weight of the PVCuZnSOD monomer is 15 kDa. The optimum temperature of PVCuZnSOD is 20 °C, and it maintains high activity in the range of 0–60 °C. It also has high thermal stability when incubated at 37 °C. PVCuZnSOD has a maximum activity of more than 50% in the pH range of 4–11 and a high activity at pH 11. In addition, PVCuZnSOD has strong tolerance to Ni2+, Mg2+, Ba2+, and Ca2+, and it can withstand chemical reagents, such as Tween20, TritonX-100, ethanol, glycerol, isopropanol, DMSO, urea, and GuHCl. PVCuZnSOD also shows great stability to gastrointestinal fluid compared with bovine SOD. These characteristics show that PVCuZnSOD has great application potential in medicine, food, and other products.

Marine Bioprospecting: Enzymes and Stress Proteins from the Sea Anemones Anthopleura dowii and Lebrunia neglecta

“…Some marine invertebrates live in environments with significant physical and biological variations, generating natural products with new biochemical characteristics to adapt to these environments [2,3,5,11]. These organisms are fascinating for marine bioprospecting due to the potential for novel natural marine products to be found.…”