Alginate is an anionic polysaccharide abundantly present in the cell walls of brown macroalgae. The enzymatic depolymerization is performed solely by alginate lyases (EC 4.2.2.x), categorized as polysaccharide lyases (PLs) belonging to 12 different PL families. Until now, the vast majority of the alginate lyases have been found in bacteria. We report here the first extensive characterization of four alginate lyases from a marine fungus, the ascomycete Paradendryphiella salina, a known saprophyte of seaweeds. We have identified four polysaccharide lyase encoding genes bioinformatically in P. salina, one PL8 (PsMan8A), and three PL7 alginate lyases (PsAlg7A, -B, and -C). PsMan8A was demonstrated to exert exo-action on polymannuronic acid, and no action on alginate, indicating that this enzyme is most likely an exo-acting polymannuronic acid specific lyase. This enzyme is the first alginate lyase assigned to PL8 and polymannuronic acid thus represents a new substrate specificity in this family. The PL7 lyases (PsAlg7A, -B, and -C) were found to be endo-acting alginate lyases with different activity optima, substrate affinities, and product profiles. PsAlg7A and PsMan8A showed a clear synergistic action for the complete depolymerization of polyM at pH 5. PsAlg7A depolymerized polyM to mainly DP5 and DP3 oligomers and PsMan8A to dimers and monosaccharides. PsAlg7B and PsAlg7C showed substrate affinities towards both polyM and polyG at pH 8, depolymerizing both substrates to DP9-DP2 oligomers. The findings elucidate how P. salina accomplishes alginate depolymerization and provide insight into an efficient synergistic cooperation that may provide a new foundation for enzyme selection for alginate degradation in seaweed bioprocessing.
Keywords: alginate; alginate lyase; enzyme characterization; exo-acting; marine fungi; polyguluronic acid; polymannuronic acid; polysaccharide lyase.