Boc-L-alanine aldehyde

Ficin extract has been aminated using ethylenediamine and carbodiimide to transform all exposed carboxylic groups into amino groups, retaining around 80% of activity versus benzoyl-d,l-arginine p-nitroanilide hydrochloride (BANA) and 90% versus casein. This aminated enzyme was then immobilized on glyoxyl agarose beads. After optimization of the immobilization protocol (immobilization at pH 10 for just 1 h), the new biocatalyst was compared to that obtained using the non-aminated enzyme. Activity versus BANA was lower, but was higher versus casein. The new biocatalyst was more stable than the reference mainly at pH 7. The new biocatalyst permitted to have a more linear course and a higher hydrolysis yield of casein at 75 °C. Moreover, the activity of the new preparations was significantly higher than the reference or the free enzyme in 8 M urea, at pH 7 and 55 °C. The enzyme in an overloaded biocatalyst exhibited a much higher specific activity versus casein (75% of the low loaded biocatalysts) than the non-aminated enzyme (only 30%), suggesting a more appropriate enzyme orientation that decreased steric hindrances. Finally, the enzyme was reused for 5 cycles of casein hydrolysis at 40 °C and pH 7 without any decrease in enzyme activity.

This paper presents stable Alcalase-glyoxyl derivatives, to be used in the controlled hydrolysis of proteins. They were produced by immobilizing-stabilizing Alcalase on cross-linked 10% agarose beads, using low and high activation grades of the support and different immobilization times. The Alcalase glyoxyl derivatives were compared to other agarose derivatives, prepared using glutaraldehyde and CNBr as activation reactants. The performance of derivatives in the hydrolysis of casein was also tested. At pH 8.0 and 50 degrees C, Alcalase derivatives produced with 1 h of immobilization time on agarose activated with glutaraldehyde, CNBr, and low and high glyoxyl groups concentration presented half-lives of ca. 10, 29, 60, and 164 h, respectively. More extensive immobilization monotonically led to higher stabilization. The most stabilized Alcalase-glyoxyl derivative was produced using 96 h of immobilization time and high activation grade of the support. It presented half-life of ca. 23 h, at pH 8.0 and 63 degrees C and was ca. 500-fold more stable than the soluble enzyme. Thermal inactivation of all derivatives followed a single-step non-first-order kinetics. The most stable derivative presented ca. 54% of the activity of the soluble enzyme for the hydrolysis of casein and of the small substrate Boc-Ala-ONp. This behavior suggests that the decrease in activity was due to enzyme distortion but not to wrong orientation. The hydrolysis degree of casein at 80 degrees C with the most stabilized enzyme was 2-fold higher than that achieved using soluble enzyme, as a result of the thermal inactivation of the latter. Therefore, the high stability of the new Alcalase-glyoxyl derivative allows the design of continuous processes to hydrolyze proteins at temperatures that avoid microbial growth.

In this paper, the stabilization of a lipase from Bacillus thermocatenulatus (BTL2) by a new strategy is described. First, the lipase is selectively adsorbed on hydrophobic supports. Second, the carboxylic residues of the enzyme are modified with ethylenediamine, generating a new enzyme having 4-fold more amino groups than the native enzyme. The chemical amination did not present a significant effect on the enzyme activity and only reduced the enzyme half-life by a 3-4-fold factor in inactivations promoted by heat or organic solvents. Next, the aminated and purified enzyme is desorbed from the support using 0.2% Triton X-100. Then, the aminated enzyme was immobilized on glyoxyl-agarose by multipoint covalent attachment. The immobilized enzyme retained 65% of the starting activity. Because of the lower p K of the new amino groups in the enzyme surface, the immobilization could be performed at pH 9 (while the native enzyme was only immobilized at pH over 10). In fact, the immobilization rate was higher at this pH value for the aminated enzyme than that of the native enzyme at pH 10. The optimal stabilization protocol was the immobilization of aminated BTL2 at pH 9 and the further incubation for 24 h at 25 degrees C and pH 10. This preparation was 5-fold more stable than the optimal BTL2 immobilized on glyoxyl agarose and around 1200-fold more stable than the enzyme immobilized on CNBr and further aminated. The catalytic properties of BTL2 could be greatly modulated by the immobilization protocol. For example, from (R/S)-2- O-butyryl-2-phenylacetic acid, one preparation of BTL2 could be used to produce the S-isomer, while other preparation produced the R-isomer.