Designing of a novel dextransucrase efficient in acceptor reactions

• A novel dextransucrase, truncated B-512F dextransucrase fused to GST, was produced.
• The enzyme is fully active and leads to production of low molecular weight dextran.
• The novel enzyme carries out acceptor reactions better than native enzyme.
• The enzyme could be produced in large quantity.
• The research provided new insight on the size of the catalytic site of dextransucrase.

Dextransucrase is produced by Leuconostoc, Streptococcus and Lactobacillus Species. The enzyme synthesizes dextran and acceptor products some of which act as prebiotics that are increasingly used in such industries as food, medicine, and cosmetics. B-512F Leuconostoc mesenteroides dextransucrase (DSR-S) is the preferred enzyme in commercial production of dextran and prebiotics. In the present work, a novel dextransucrase which is efficient in prebiotics production was designed. The enzyme was produced at optimal conditions in Escherichia coli by truncation and fusion to glutathione S-transferase (GST) in the gene from Leuconostoc mesenteroides B-512 FMC. The novel enzyme (MW: 119 kDa) was active and carried out dextran biosynthesis and acceptor reactions effectively. The novel dextransucrase (fTDSR-S) was produced by truncating signal, variable, and the glucan-binding regions in the gene and fusion of gst gene at the 5′ end. fTDSR-S was characterized in detail and compared to the DSR-S. Truncation and fusion resulted in an increase in fTDSR-S biosynthesis in E. coli BL21 (DE3) by 35 fold. fTDSR-S leads to production of dextran as well as increased acceptor reactions. Due to GST fusion, it was possible to immobilize fTDSR-S covalently onto Eupergit C successfully. It was also found that the size of the active site of dextransucrase is 49 amino acids shorter than that reported previously in the literature.

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