Characterization of a novel cold active and salt tolerant esterase from Zunongwangia profunda

•EstLiu is a novel esterase cloned from the marine bacterium Zunongwangia profunda.•EstLiu belongs to a new family.•EstLiu could retain 75% activity at the freezing point of water.•EstLiu shows good tolerance against salt and organic solvents.

A novel cold active esterase, EstLiu was cloned from the marine bacterium Zunongwangia profunda, overexpressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3) and purified by glutathione-S transferase (GST) affinity chromatography. The mature esterase EstLiu sequence encodes a protein of 273 amino acids residues, with a predicted molecular weight of 30 KDa and containing the classical pentapeptidase motif from position 156 to 160 with the catalytic triad Ser158-Asp211-His243. Although, EstLiu showed 64% similarity with the hypothetical esterase from Chryseobacterium sp. StRB126 (WP_045498424), phylogenetic analysis showed it had no similarity with any of the established family of lipases/esterases, suggesting that it could be considered as a new family. The purified enzyme showed broad substrate specificity with the highest hydrolytic activity against p-nitrophenyl butyrate (C4). EstLiu showed remarkable activity (75%) at 0 °Cand the optimal activity at pH 8.0 and 30 °C with good thermostability and quickened inactivation above 60 °C. EstLiu retained 81, 103, 67 and 78% of its original activity at 50% (v/v) in ethanol, isopropanol, DMSO and ethylene glycol, respectively. In the presence of Tween 20, Tween 80 and Triton X-100, EstLiu showed 88, 100 and 117% of relative activity. It is also co-factor independent. The high activity at low temperature and desirable stability in organic solvents and salts of this novel family esterase represents a good evidence of novel biocatalyst. Overall, this novel enzyme showed better activity than previously reported esterases in extreme reaction conditions and could promote the reaction in both aqueous and non-aqueous conditions, indicating its great potential for industrial applications.