In silico metagenomes mining to discover novel esterases with industrial application by sequential search strategies

J Microbiol Biotechnol. 2015 May;25(5):732-7. doi: 10.4014/jmb.1406.06049.

Abstract

We present here an in silico search of fungal sterol-esterase/lipase and bacterial depolymerase sequences from environmental metagenomes. Both enzyme types contain the α/β-hydrolase protein fold. Analysis of DNA conserved motifs, protein homology search, phylogenetic analysis, and protein 3D modeling have been used, and the efficiency of these screening strategies is discussed. The presence of bacterial genes in the metagenomes was higher than those from fungi, and the sequencing depth of the metagenomes seemed to be crucial to allow finding enough diversity of enzyme sequences. As a result, a novel putative PHA-depolymerase is described.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteria* / classification
  • Bacteria* / enzymology
  • Bacteria* / genetics
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / chemistry*
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases / genetics*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Environmental Microbiology
  • Genes, Bacterial / genetics
  • Industrial Microbiology
  • Metagenome / genetics*
  • Models, Molecular
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Alignment
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • Carboxylic Ester Hydrolases