Relationships between Substrate Promiscuity and Chiral Selectivity of Esterases from Phylogenetically and Environmentally Diverse Microorganisms

Cristina Coscolín, Mónica Martínez-Martínez, Jennifer Chow, Rafael Bargiela, Antonio García-Moyano, Gro E.K. Bjerga, Alexander Bollinger, Runar Stokke, Ida H. Steen, Olga Golyshina, Michail M. Yakimov, Karl-Erich Jaeger, Alexander F. Yakunin, Wolfgang R. Streit, Peter Golyshin, Manuel Ferrer

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    183 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    Substrate specificity and selectivity of a biocatalyst are determined by the protein sequence and structure of its active site. Finding versatile biocatalysts acting against multiple substrates while at the same time being chiral selective is of interest for the pharmaceutical and chemical industry. However, the relationships between these two properties in natural microbial enzymes remain underexplored. Here, we performed an experimental analysis of substrate promiscuity and chiral selectivity in a set of 145 purified esterases from phylogenetically and environmentally diverse microorganisms, which were assayed against 96 diverse esters, 20 of which were enantiomers. Our results revealed a negative correlation between substrate promiscuity and chiral selectivity in the evaluated enzymes. Esterases displaying prominent substrate promiscuity and large catalytic environments are characterized by low chiral selectivity, a feature that has limited commercial value. Although a low level of substrate promiscuity does not guarantee high chiral selectivity, the probability that esterases with smaller active sites possess chiral selectivity factors of interest for industry (>25) is significantly higher than for promiscuous enzymes. Together, the present study unambiguously demonstrates that promiscuous and selective esterases appear to be rare in nature and that substrate promiscuity can be used as an indicator of the chiral selectivity level of esterases, and vice versa.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number10
    JournalCatalysts
    Volume8
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 5 Jan 2018

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Relationships between Substrate Promiscuity and Chiral Selectivity of Esterases from Phylogenetically and Environmentally Diverse Microorganisms'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this