Understanding the Plasticity of the alpha/beta Hydrolase Fold : Lid Swapping on the Candida antarctica Lipase B Results in Chimeras with Interesting Biocatalytic Properties

• The Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) has found very extensive use in biocatalysis reactions. Long molecular dynamics simulations of CALB in explicit aqueous solvent confirmed the high mobility of the regions lining the channel that leads into the active site, in particular, of helices alpha 5 and alpha 10. The simulation also confirmed the function of helix alpha 5 as a lid of the lipase. Replacing it with corresponding lid regions from the CALB homologues from Neurospora crassa and Gibberella zeae resulted in two new CALB mutants. Characterization of these revealed several interesting properties, including increased hydrolytic activity on simple esters, specifically substrates with C. branching on the carboxylic side, and much increased enantioselectivity in hydrolysis of racemic ethyl 2-phenylpropanoate (E > 50), which is a common structure of the profen drug family.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

enantioselectivity

enzyme catalysis

ester hydrolysis

gene expression

molecular dynamics

Biochemistry

Biokemi

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)