Characterisation of three fungal glucuronoyl esterases on glucuronic acid ester model compounds
Journal article, 2017

The glucuronoyl esterases (GEs) that have been identified so far belong to family 15 of the carbohydrate esterases in the CAZy classification system and are presumed to target ester bonds between lignin alcohols and (4-O-methyl-)d-glucuronic acid residues of xylan. Few GEs have been cloned, expressed and characterised to date. Characterisation has been done on a variety of synthetic substrates; however, the number of commercially available substrates is very limited. We identified novel putative GEs from a wide taxonomic range of fungi and expressed the enzymes originating from Acremonium alcalophilum and Wolfiporia cocos as well as the previously described PcGE1 from Phanerochaete chrysosporium. All three fungal GEs were active on the commercially available compounds benzyl glucuronic acid (BnGlcA), allyl glucuronic acid (allylGlcA) and to a lower degree on methyl glucuronic acid (MeGlcA). The enzymes showed pH stability over a wide pH range and tolerated 6-h incubations of up to 50 degrees C. Kinetic parameters were determined for BnGlcA. This study shows the suitability of the commercially available model compounds BnGlcA, MeGlcA and allylGlcA in GE activity screening and characterisation experiments. We enriched the spectrum of characterised GEs with two new members of a relatively young enzyme family. Due to its biotechnological significance, this family deserves to be more extensively studied. The presented enzymes are promising candidates as auxiliary enzymes to improve saccharification of plant biomass.

Methyl glucuronic acid

CAZymes

Benzyl glucuronic acid

Lignin-carbohydrate complexes

Allyl glucuronic acid

Carbohydrate esterase

Author

Silvia Hüttner

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology

Sylvia Klaubauf

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology

R. P. de Vries

Utrecht University

Lisbeth Olsson

Wallenberg Wood Science Center (WWSC)

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

0175-7598 (ISSN) 1432-0614 (eISSN)

Vol. 101 13 5301-5311

Subject Categories

Industrial Biotechnology

Microbiology

DOI

10.1007/s00253-017-8266-9

More information

Latest update

10/24/2022