Мы описываем низкая стоимость, высокая пропускная способность метода для выявления грибковых деятельности в эндоглюканазы<em> Е. палочки.</em> Метод основан на простой визуальный отсчет деградации субстрата, не требует очистки фермента, и является масштабируемой. Это дает возможность быстрого скрининга больших библиотек фермента вариантов.
Cellulase enzymes (endoglucanases, cellobiohydrolases, and β-glucosidases) hydrolyze cellulose into component sugars, which in turn can be converted into fuel alcohols1. The potential for enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulosic biomass to provide renewable energy has intensified efforts to engineer cellulases for economical fuel production2. Of particular interest are fungal cellulases3-8, which are already being used industrially for foods and textiles processing.
Identifying active variants among a library of mutant cellulases is critical to the engineering process; active mutants can be further tested for improved properties and/or subjected to additional mutagenesis. Efficient engineering of fungal cellulases has been hampered by a lack of genetic tools for native organisms and by difficulties in expressing the enzymes in heterologous hosts. Recently, Morikawa and coworkers developed a method for expressing in E. coli the catalytic domains of endoglucanases from H. jecorina3,9, an important industrial fungus with the capacity to secrete cellulases in large quantities. Functional E. coli expression has also been reported for cellulases from other fungi, including Macrophomina phaseolina10 and Phanerochaete chrysosporium11-12.
We present a method for high throughput screening of fungal endoglucanase activity in E. coli. (Fig 1) This method uses the common microbial dye Congo Red (CR) to visualize enzymatic degradation of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) by cells growing on solid medium. The activity assay requires inexpensive reagents, minimal manipulation, and gives unambiguous results as zones of degradation (“halos”) at the colony site. Although a quantitative measure of enzymatic activity cannot be determined by this method, we have found that halo size correlates with total enzymatic activity in the cell. Further characterization of individual positive clones will determine , relative protein fitness.
Traditional bacterial whole cell CMC/CR activity assays13 involve pouring agar containing CMC onto colonies, which is subject to cross-contamination, or incubating cultures in CMC agar wells, which is less amenable to large-scale experimentation. Here we report an improved protocol that modifies existing wash methods14 for cellulase activity: cells grown on CMC agar plates are removed prior to CR staining. Our protocol significantly reduces cross-contamination and is highly scalable, allowing the rapid screening of thousands of clones. In addition to H. jecorina enzymes, we have expressed and screened endoglucanase variants from the Thermoascus aurantiacus and Penicillium decumbens (shown in Figure 2), suggesting that this protocol is applicable to enzymes from a range of organisms.
Протокол, описанный здесь, позволяет быстро и высокую пропускную способность идентификации активных ферментов, с минимальной манипуляцией. Обнаружение активности является достаточно чувствительным, и качественно отражает количество активности внутри клетки. Его простота использов…
The authors have nothing to disclose.
Эта работа финансировалась Гордона и Бетти Мур Фонда, а также UNCF / Merck Научная инициатива.
Reagent | Company | Product number |
---|---|---|
IPTG | Sigma | I1284 |
Congo Red | Sigma | C6277 |
Carboxymethyl Cellulose | Sigma | 360384 |
NaCl | Sigma | S1679 |
Bacto-agar | BD Biosciences | 214030 |
Bioassay plates | Thermo Scientific | 240845 |