Insights into the fatty acid chain length specificity of the carboxylesterase PA3859 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa: A combined structural, biochemical and computational study

The open reading frame PA3859 of Pseudomonas aeruginosa encodes an intracellular carboxylesterase belonging to a group of microbial enzymes (EC 3.1.1.1) that catalyze the hydrolysis of aliphatic and aromatic esters with a broad substrate specificity. With few exceptions, for this class of enzymes, belonging to the α/β-hydrolase fold superfamily, very little information is available regarding their biochemical activity and in vivo function. The X-ray crystal structure of recombinant PA3859 has been determined for two crystal forms (space groups P21 and P21212). The kinetic properties of the enzyme were studied using p-nitrophenyl esters as substrates and data fitted to a surface dilution mixed micelle kinetic model. Enzymatic assays and computational docking simulations, pinpointed the enzyme’s preference for esters of palmitic and/or stearic acids and provided insights into the enzyme–substrate favorable binding modes.