Key amino acid residues for the endo-processive activity of GH74 xyloglucanase

Unlike endo-dissociative-xyloglucanases, Paenibacillus XEG74 is an endo-processive xyloglucanase that contains four unique tryptophan residues in the negative subsites (W61 and W64) and the positive subsites (W318 and W319), as indicated by three-dimensional homology modelling. Selective replacement of the positive subsite residues with alanine mutations reduced the degree of processive activity and resulted in the more endo-dissociative-activity. The results showed that W318 and W319, which are found in the positive subsites, are essential for processive degradation and are responsible for maintaining binding interactions with xyloglucan polysaccharide through a stacking effect.