Phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) plays a central role
in the phenylpropanoid
pathway and in the treatment of phenylketonuria. However, the integration
of PAL into sustainable industrial biocatalysis is hampered by its
instability under harsh conditions. This study demonstrates that ionic
liquid (IL)–assisted solvent (Tris-HCl buffer) engineering
enables improvement of the reaction kinetics and thermodynamic stability
of Rhodotorula glutinisPAL (RgPAL) under various stresses. Under optimized conditions,
a 66.2% higher Kcat value, >60% remaining activity after
5 weeks of storage at room temperature, and >80% activity of RgPAL after incubation at 60 °C for 1 h were obtained
in the [Ch][Ac]-blended Tris-HCl solvent compared to pristine Tris-HCl.
The spectroscopic and molecular docking results suggest that the higher
extent of hydration and the soft interactions complemented by the
ILs with the D-chain residues of RgPAL jointly contributed
to achieving more stable and active conformations of RgPAL. The enzyme showed a higher melting temperature (T
m) in ILs+Tris-HCl compared to that in pristine Tris-HCl,
with less change in enthalpy (ΔH
fu) and entropy (ΔS
fu) of unfolding.
Overall, IL-mediated solvent engineering alters the microenvironment
of RgPAL and allows the development of a robust PAL-based
biocatalytic system.