Computational design of Lactobacillus Acidophilus α-L-rhamnosidase to increase its structural stability

PLoS One. 2022 May 25;17(5):e0268953. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268953. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

α-L-rhamnosidase catalyzes hydrolysis of the terminal α-L-rhamnose from various natural rhamnoglycosides, including naringin and hesperidin, and has various applications such as debittering of citrus juices in the food industry and flavonoid derhamnosylation in the pharmaceutical industry. However, its activity is lost at high temperatures, limiting its usage. To improve Lactobacillus acidophilus α-L-rhamnosidase stability, we employed molecular dynamics (MD) to identify a highly flexible region, as evaluated by its root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) value, and computational protein design (Rosetta) to increase rigidity and favorable interactions of residues in highly flexible regions. MD results show that five regions have the highest flexibilities and were selected for design by Rosetta. Twenty-one designed mutants with the best ΔΔG at each position and ΔΔG < 0 REU were simulated at high temperature. Eight designed mutants with ΔRMSF of highly flexible regions lower than -10.0% were further simulated at the optimum temperature of the wild type. N88Q, N202V, G207D, Q209M, N211T and Y213K mutants were predicted to be more stable and could maintain their native structures better than the wild type due to increased hydrogen bond interactions of designed residues and their neighboring residues. These designed mutants are promising enzymes with high potential for stability improvement.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Fruit and Vegetable Juices
  • Glycoside Hydrolases* / metabolism
  • Hydrolysis
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus* / genetics
  • Lactobacillus acidophilus* / metabolism
  • Temperature

Substances

  • Glycoside Hydrolases
  • alpha-L-rhamnosidase

Grants and funding

This research project was financially supported by Agricultural Research Development Agency (Public Organization) of Thailand or “ARDA” grant number CRP6405031560. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.