Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase in the liquid-crystalline phases of aqueous phytantriol: X-ray diffraction and vibrational spectroscopic studies

The influence of Thermomyces lanuginosus lipase (TLL) on the phase behaviour of liquid-crystalline phases of aqueous phytantriol as well as conformational changes of TLL entrapped in the cubic Q230 phase have been studied by small angle X-ray diffraction (SAXD), FT-Raman, and FT-IR techniques. It was found that the lipidic Q230 phase is able to accommodate up to 10 wt.% of TLL, and the temperature of phase transition to the inverted hexagonal phase HII increases indicating stabilizing effect of the protein. FT-Raman analysis of Trp amino acid marker band W3 revealed that the average rotation angle around the C3Cβ bond of four Trp residues of TLL in the Q230 phase increases. Reasoning from available TLL crystallographic data, this result is explained by structural transition of entrapped protein to so-called “open” and more related to the enzymatically-active conformation. TLL secondary structure analysis by amide I and amide III vibrational bands showed that content of α-helixes does not change, while a part of β-sheet structures transforms to less ordered elements upon incorporation of protein into the Q230 phase of aqueous phytantriol.