Kinetic and biophysical characterization of a lysosomal α-l-fucosidase from the fresh water mussel, Lamellidens corrianus

- A lysosomal α-l-fucosidase is purified from fresh water mussel, L. corrianus by affinity chromatography.
- The KM and kcat of the enzyme for p-nitrophenyl fucopyranoside are 0.85 mM and 1.01 S−1, respectively.
- The L. corrianus α-l-fucosidase exhibits sequence homology with known fucosidases.
- CD spectra show that β-sheet is the predominant secondary structure of α-l-fucosidase.
- The α-l-fucosidase is readily unfolded by Gdm.Cl and Gdm.SCN.

Kinetic and biophysical studies have been carried out on a lysosomal α-l-fucosidase purified from the fresh water mussel, Lamellidens corrianus. The enzyme migrates as a single band in SDS-PAGE as well as native PAGE corresponding to a Mr of 56 kDa. Mass spectrometric analysis yielded a molecular mass of 56175.1 Da for the enzyme, and peptide mass fingerprinting studies showed that it shares sequence homology with other fucosidases. Zymogram analysis showed that the α-l-fucosidase hydrolyzed 4-methyl umbelliferyl α-l-fucopyranoside. The pH and temperature optima of the enzyme were found to be 5.0-6.0 and 60 °C, respectively. The KM, Vmax and kcat values of the enzyme estimated with p-nitrophenyl fucopyranoside are 0.85 mM, 27.20 mU/mL and 1.01 s−1, respectively. The inhibition constant (Ki) of the enzyme towards l-Fucose is 1.09 mM. CD spectral analysis has shown that the protein contains predominantly β-sheets in its secondary structure. Chemical unfolding studies indicate that α-l-fucosidase unfolds in a broad sigmoidal, cooperative unfolding transition, centered at ∼2.2 M for both guanidinium chloride and guanidinium thiocyanate. The present results obtained with the L. corrianus α-l-fucosidase are expected to provide further insights into the various biological processes associated with fucosidases and help in exploiting this enzyme in therapeutic applications.