Biochemical Analysis of Recombinant Fungal Mutanases

Nucleotide sequence analysis shows that Trichoderma harzianum and Penicillium purpurogenum alpha1,3-glucanases (mutanases) have homologous primary structures (53% amino acid sequence identity), and are composed of two distinct domains: a NH(2)-terminal catalytic domain and a putative COOH-terminal polysaccharide-binding domain separated by a O-glycosylated Pro-Ser-Thr-rich linker peptide. Each mutanase was expressed in Aspergillus oryzae host under the transcriptional control of a strong alpha-amylase gene promoter. The purified recombinant mutanases show a pH optimum in the range from pH 3.5 to 4.5 and a temperature optimum around 50-55 degrees C at pH 5.5. Also, they exhibit strong binding to insoluble mutan with K(D) around 0.11 and 0.13 microM at pH 7 for the P. purpurogenum and T. harzianum mutanases, respectively. Partial hydrolysis showed that the COOH-terminal domain of the T. harzianum mutanase binds to mutan. The catalytic domains and the binding domains were assigned to a new family of glycoside hydrolases and to a new family of carbohydrate-binding domains, respectively.