Optimization of Transesterification Reactions with CLEA-Immobilized Feruloyl Esterases from Thermothelomyces thermophila and Talaromyces wortmannii

Abstract

Feruloyl esterases (FAEs, E.C. 3.1.1.73) are biotechnologically important enzymes with several applications in ferulic acid production from biomass, but also in synthesis of hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives. The use of such biocatalysts in commercial processes can become feasible by their immobilization, providing the advantages of isolation and recycling. In this work, eight feruloyl esterases, immobilized in cross-linked enzyme aggregates (CLEAs) were tested in regard to their transesterification performance, towards the production of prenyl ferulate (PFA) and arabinose ferulate (AFA). After solvent screening, comparison with the activity of respective soluble enzymes, and operational stability tests, FAE125 was selected as the most promising biocatalyst. A central composite design revealed the optimum conditions for each transesterification product, in terms of water content, time, and substrate ratio for both products, and temperature and enzyme load additionally for prenyl ferulate. The optimum product yields obtained were 83.7% for PFA and 58.1% for AFA. FAE125 CLEAs are stable in the optimum conditions of transesterification reactions, maintaining 70% residual activity after five consecutive reactions. Overall, FAE125 CLEAs seem to be able to perform as a robust biocatalyst, offering satisfactory yields and stability, and thus showing significant potential for industrial applications.

Ferulic Acid From Plant Biomass: A Phytochemical With Promising Antiviral Properties

“…Although they are not so stable in low-water content media as lipases (131), their ability as biocatalytic tools for (trans)esterification has been demonstrated. Their major advantage over lipases is the specificity toward hydroxycinnamic acids, allowing acylation of FA with a wide range of hydrophilic or lipophilic substitutions, such as alcohols, polyols or sugars (132)(133)(134)(135)(136)(137).…”

Together Is Better: The Rumen Microbial Community as Biological Toolbox for Degradation of Synthetic Polyesters

“…Hydrolysis of polyesters and other synthetic polymers was previously described for Penicillium and Beauveria species (Heumann et al, 2006;Liebminger et al, 2007;Almansa et al, 2009). Fungi involved in plant cell wall degradation, like Thermothelomyces thermophilus, Talaromyces wortmannii (Zerva et al, 2018), and Thielavia terrestris (Meng et al, 2019), produce feruloyl esterases. This class of hydrolases cleaves the ester bonds between hydroxycinnamic acid esterified with arabinoxylans (Wong, 2006).…”

Biocatalysis in the winemaking industry: Challenges and opportunities for immobilized enzymes

“…Salient properties of CLEAs are their high specific activity and stability, low cost of production, and possible reuse (Sheldon et al., ; Wilson et al., ). Many reactions have been carried out using CLEAs of different enzymes (Gruškienė, Kairys, & Matijošytė, ; Gupta, Jana, Kumar, & Jana, ; Illanes et al., ; Sekhon et al., ; Vafiadi, Topakas, & Christakopoulos, ; Van Pelt et al., ; Velasco‐Lozano et al., ; Wilson et al., ; Zerva et al., ). This strategy has allowed stabilizing the complex structure of multimeric enzymes (Wilson et al., ) and couple several enzymes within one catalyst particle (combi‐CLEAs) (Ahumada et al., ; Araya, Urrutia, Romero, Illanes, & Wilson, ).…”