PMID: 25752603

Authors:

Bianchetti CM, Takasuka TE, Deutsch S, Udell HS, Yik EJ, Bergeman LF, Fox BG

Title:

Active site and laminarin binding in glycoside hydrolase family 55.

Journal:

J Biol Chem. 2015 Mar 9. pii: jbc.M114.623579.

Abstract:

The Carbohydrate Active Enzyme (CaZY) database indicates that glycoside hydrolase family 55 (GH55) contains both endo- and exo-beta -1,3-glucanases. The founding structure of the GH55 is PcLam55A from the white-rot fungus Phanaerochaete chrysosporium (Ishida, T., et al. (2009) J. Biol. Chem. 284, 10100-10109). Here, we present high resolution crystal structures of bacterial SacteLam55A from the highly cellulolytic Streptomyces sp. SirexAA-E with bound substrates and product. These structures, along with mutagenesis and kinetic studies implicate Glu502 as the catalytic acid (as proposed earlier for Glu663 in PcLam55A) and a proton relay network of four residues in activating water as the nucleophile. Further, a set of conserved aromatic residues that define the active site apparently enforce an exo-glucanase reactivity as demonstrated by exhaustive hydrolysis reactions with purified laminarioligosaccharides. Two additional aromatic residues that line the substrate-binding channel show substrate-dependent conformational flexibility that may promote processive reactivity of the bound oligosaccharide in the bacterial enzymes. Gene synthesis carried out on ~30% of the GH55 family gave 34 active enzymes (19% functional coverage of the non-redundant members of GH55). These active enzymes reacted with only laminarin from a panel of 10 different soluble and insoluble polysaccharides and displayed a broad range of specific activities, and optima for pH and temperature. Application of this experimental method provides a new, systematic way to annotate GH phylogenetic space for functional properties.