Integral to the physiological and biochemical properties of the plant, the primary cell wall (PCW) is of great economical interest. Transglycanases are a class of cell-wall remodelling enzymes hypothesised to be involved – among other functions – in cellular elongation and strengthening of the PCW. At present only four transglycanases have been convincingly characterised but the potential existence of many more is likely. To detect potential novel transglycanase activity, broad spectrum fluorescent and radioactive assays were conducted using a variety of potential donor and acceptor substrates. Enzyme extracts were sourced from a range of plants that represented the majority of the plant kingdom. Beansprout extracts reproducibly displayed significant incorportation of radioactivity and fluorescence when incubated with an α-arabinan or β- galactan donor and labelled xyloglucan oligosaccharide (XGO) acceptor. However, further analysis indicated the presence of xyloglucan contamination in donor polysaccharides and thus the activity observed was xyloglucan endotransglucosylase (XET). It has been hypothesised in the literature that linkages formed between the hemicellulosic and pectic matrices may be due to the activity of a transglycanase. This study has found no evidence to support this. In addition, during identification of the gene responsible for mixed-linkage β- (1,3),(1,4)-glucan : xyloglucan endotransglycosylase (MXE) activity – observed in Equisetum – a heterologous Pichia pastoris expression system was developed allowing the synthesis of a novel recombinant hetero-transglycanase (HTG) conferring predominant MXE activity and of five previously unstudied recombinant XET-active xyloglucan endotransglycosylase/ hydrolases (XTHs).

<p> </p><p>In a time when the amount of biological data present in the public domain is becoming increasingly vast, the need for good classification systems has never been greater. In the field of glycoscience the necessity of a good classification for the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis, modification and degradation of polysaccharides is even more pronounced than in other fields. This is due to the complexity of the substrates, the polysaccharides, as the theoretical number of possible hexa-oligosaccharides from only hexoses exceeds 10¹² isomers! </p><p>An initiative to classify enzymes acting on carbohydrates began around 1990 by the French scientist Bernard Henrissat. The resulting database, the Carbohydrate Active enzymes database (CAZy), classifies enzymes by sequence similarity into families allowing the inference of structure and catalytic mechanism. What CAZy <em>does not </em>provide however, are means to understand how members of a family are related, and in what way they differ from each other. The top-down approach used in this thesis, combining phylogenetic analysis of whole CAZy families, or sub-families, with structural determinations and detailed kinetic analysis allows for exactly that.  </p><p>Finding determinants for transglycosylation <em>versus </em>hydrolysis within the <em>xth </em>gene product family of GH16 as well as restricting the hydrolytic enzymes to a well defined clade are integral parts of paper I. In paper II a new bacterial sub-clade within CE8 was discovered. The structural determination of the<em>Escherichia coli </em>outer membrane lipoprotein YbhC from from the new sub-clade explained the difference in specificity. The information provided in the two papers of this thesis gives a better understanding of the development of different specificities of diverse CAZY families as well as it aids in future gene product annotations. Furthermore this work has begun to fill the white spots uncovered in the phylogenetic trees.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

In this thesis, enzymes acting on the primary cell wall hemicellulose xyloglucan are studied.  Xyloglucans are ubiquitous in land plants which make them an important polysaccharide to utilise for microbes and a potentially interesting raw material for various industries.  The function of xyloglucans in plants is mainly to improve primary cell wall characteristics by coating and tethering cellulose microfibrils together.  Some plants also utilise xyloglucans as storage polysaccharides in their seeds. In microbes, a variety of different enzymes for degrading xyloglucans have been found.  In this thesis, the structure-function relationship of three different microbial endo-xyloglucanases from glycoside hydrolase families 5, 12 and 44 are probed and reveal details of the natural diversity found in xyloglucanases.  Hopefully, a better understanding of how xyloglucanases recognise and degrade their substrate can lead to improved saccharification processes of plant matter, finding uses in for example biofuel production. In plants, xyloglucans are modified in muro by the xyloglucan transglycosylase/hydrolase (XTH) gene products.  Interestingly, closely related XTH gene products catalyse either transglycosylation (XET activity) or hydrolysis (XEH activity) with dramatically different effects on xyloglucan and on cell wall characteristics.  The strict transglycosylases transfer xyloglucan segments between individual xyloglucan molecules while the hydrolases degrade xyloglucan into oligosaccharides.  Here, we describe and determine, a major determinant of transglycosylation versus hydrolysis in XTH gene products by solving and comparing the first 3D structure of an XEH, Tm-NXG1 and a XET, PttXET16-34.  The XEH activity was hypothesised, and later confirmed to be restricted to subset of the XTH gene products.  The in situ localisation of XEH activity in roots and hypocotyls of Arabidopsis was also visualised for the first time.  Furthermore, an evolutionary scheme for how XTH gene products developed from bacterial beta-1,3;1,4 glucanases was also presented based on the characterisation of a novel plant endo-glucanase, PtEG16-1. The EG16s are proposed to predate XTH gene products and are with activity on both xyloglucan and beta-1,3;1,4 glucans an “intermediate” in the evolution from beta-1,3;1,4 glucanases to XTH gene products. / QC 20110401

Xyloglucan endotransglucosylase activity (XET), one of the two main activities of wall xyloglucan endotransglucosylase/hydrolase proteins (XTHs), is of interest because it is responsible for cutting and re-joining xyloglucan of the hemicellulose-cellulose microfibril network in the plant cell wall. XET activity causes transient matrix cleavage without hydrolysis, thus providing a molecular mechanism for controlled, turgor-driven wall expansion. XET activity can be involved in both wall-loosening, thus facilitating cell expansion, and wall-tightening, thus suppressing cell expansion depending on the molecular size, location and age of the participating xyloglucan chains. I have studied the existence of an ‘XET activating factor’ (XAF) in the cold-water-extractable polymers of cauliflower florets. Remaining water-soluble on boiling but losing activity upon proteinase K- and trypsin-digestions implied a heavily glycosylated glycoprotein. XAF was extracted from a wide range of plants and organs. XAF solubilised Arabidopsis cell-wall XTHs, increasing their XET activity on soluble xyloglucan up to 120-fold, tested by a novel method developed in my project. XAF had effects similar to those of 15 mM Ca2+ and 100 mM Na+ in this respect, although it was only weakly ionic. Interestingly, XAF had the unique ability to solubilise XET activity but no other tested wall enzymes from Arabidopsis cell walls, suggesting a specific interaction of XAF to XTH proteins. XAF was successfully purified by the use of several methods, developed in this project. These included cation-exchange column chromatography followed by anion-exchange column chromatography, resulting in two main XAF-activity fractions; or a native- PAGE electro-elution, resulting in three main fractions. Purified XAF contained a major amount of glucose, arabinose, galactose and uronic acid residues. Both boiled cauliflower preparation (BCP) and partially purified XAF were positive with AGP antibodies but the purification of AGP from BCP by the use of Yariv reagent did not enrich XAF activity. Mass-spectrometry analyses of the purified XAF fractions showed some candidates for XAF, including fasciclin-like arabinogalactan-protein 7 (FLA7), stress-responsive protein (LTI65, LTI140) and early nodulin-like protein 14 (ENODL14). Homozygous Arabidopsis mutants (confirmed by genotyping) defective in these genes were used to determine XAF as well as its biological role on plant cell growth. Although there was no phenotype observed, several organs of the mutant plants had significant increases or decreases in XAF activity compared to that of wild type plants. This is the first work that suggests a role of fla7, enodl14 and lti65 in the solubilisation, and thus activation, of Arabidopsis XET.

No description available.

NR 20140805

In a time when the amount of biological data present in the public domain is becoming increasingly vast, the need for good classification systems has never been greater. In the field of glycoscience the necessity of a good classification for the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis, modification and degradation of polysaccharides is even more pronounced than in other fields. This is due to the complexity of the substrates, the polysaccharides, as the theoretical number of possible hexa-oligosaccharides from only hexoses exceeds 1012 isomers!  An initiative to classify enzymes acting on carbohydrates began around 1990 by the French scientist Bernard Henrissat. The resulting database, the Carbohydrate Active enzymes database (CAZy), classifies enzymes by sequence similarity into families allowing the inference of structure and catalytic mechanism. What CAZy does not provide however, are means to understand how members of a family are related, and in what way they differ from each other. The top-down approach used in this thesis, combining phylogenetic analysis of whole CAZy families, or sub-families, with structural determinations and detailed kinetic analysis allows for exactly that.   Finding determinants for transglycosylation versus hydrolysis within the xth gene product family of GH16 as well as restricting the hydrolytic enzymes to a well defined clade are integral parts of paper I. In paper II a new bacterial sub-clade within CE8 was discovered. The structural determination of theEscherichia coli outer membrane lipoprotein YbhC from from the new sub-clade explained the difference in specificity. The information provided in the two papers of this thesis gives a better understanding of the development of different specificities of diverse CAZY families as well as it aids in future gene product annotations. Furthermore this work has begun to fill the white spots uncovered in the phylogenetic trees.

<p>Primary cell walls are a composite of cellulose microfibrilsand hemicelluloses. Xyloglucan is the principal hemicelluloseof primary cell walls of dicotyledons. Xyloglucanendotransglycosylases (XETs) cleave and religate xyloglucanpolymers in plant cell walls. A XET (PttXET16A) from hybridaspen has been heterologously expressed and characterized inour lab.</p><p>To study XETs enzymology on a molecular level a series ofnovel xyloglucan oligosaccharides (XGOs) have been synthesized.The chromogenic 2-nitrophenol XGO and fluorogenic XGOs havebeen used as kinetic probes for PttXET16A. The first 3-Dstructure of the XET and of the enzyme-substrate complexrevealed new insights into the requirements fortransglycosylation.</p><p>Cellulose fibers are an important raw material for manyindustries. In a novel chemo-enzymatic approach, thetransglycosylating activity of XET was used for biomimeticfiber surface modification. The aminoalditol XGO derivate wasused as key intermediate to incorporate novel chemicalfunctionality into xyloglucan. TheXGO derivatives wereintegrated into xyloglucan with PttXET16A. The resultingmodified xyloglucan was used as a versatile tool fiber surfacemodification.</p>

El present treball de recerca s'emmarca en un projecte Europeu anomenat E.D.E.N. (Enzyme Discovery in hybrid aspen for fibre ENgineering, QLK5-CT-2001-00443), l'objectiu del qual és la identificació de nous enzims vegetals per entendre amb major profunditat els processos de formació i modificació de les fibres vegetals per abordar en el futur la millora dels paràmetres de qualitat d'aquestes fibres, mitjançant la generació de línies transgèniques de plantes. En el present projecte es pretén aprofundir en el coneixement de les xiloglucà endotransglicosilases (XET), enzims claus en la construcció i modificació controlada de la xarxa de xiloglucà cel·lulosa, estudiant el seu mecanisme d'acció i la seva especificitat per substrat. En aquest treball s'estudia una XET de Populus tremula x tremuloides, concretament la XET16A (Ptt-XET16A). Es dissenya i es valida un nou assaig enzimàtic mitjançant electroforesis capil·lar (HPCE), que permet l'estudi cinètic de les XET, emprant oligosacàrids de baix pes molecular de xiloglucà amb una estructura coneguda. Aquest substrats han estat sintetitzats en el present treball i també per l'equip del Dr. Driguez en el CERMAV-CNRS. Es determina que el màxim d'activitat de la Ptt-XET16A es dóna entre pH 5 i 5.5 i entre 30 i 40 ºC. Es demostra que aquest enzim actua mitjançant un mecanisme cinètic bi-bi ping-pong, en el que l'acceptor actua com a inhibidor competitiu del donador unint-se a l'enzim lliure i en el que, depenent del donador emprat, aquest també poc actuar com a inhibidor competitiu de l'acceptor, unint-se als subsetis positius de l'intermedi glicosil-enzim i donant diferent reaccions secundàries com són la polimerització del donador o l'elongació del producte, només en el cas que el donador presenti un grup glucosil en l'extrem no reductor. S'avalua un llibreria de xilogluco-oligosacàrids sintetitzada per l'equip del Dr. Driguez al CERMAV-CNRS com a donadors de la Ptt-XET16A. D'aquesta forma s'aprofundeix en el coneixement de l'activitat de les XTH, en el coneixement de la seva especificitat per substrat i es realitza un mapeig del centre actiu, obtenint la contribució dels diferents subsetis de la Ptt-XET16A en l'estabilització de l'estat de transició de la reacció de transglicosidació catalitzada per l'enzim estudiat. Finalment, s'ha dissenyat un substrat bifluorogènic derivat del tetradecasacàrid emprat com a substrat estàndard en el present treball, per mesurar les activitats hidrolasa i transglicosilasa de les XETs mitjançant fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). El substrat bifluorogènic ha estat obtingut i caracteritzat, tanmateix, no s'ha pogut demostrar si aquest substrat és adequat per mesurar les activitats hidrolasa i transglicosilasa de les XETs ja que les propietats fluorescents del marcador s'han perdut en el procés de síntesis del substrat. / El presente trabajo de investigación se enmarca en un proyecto Europeo llamado E.D.E.N. (Enzyme Discovery in hybrid aspen for fibre ENgineering, QLK5-CT-2001-00443), el objetivo del cual es la identificación de nuevos enzimas vegetales para entender con mayor profundidad los procesos de formación y modificación de las fibras vegetales para abordar en el futuro la mejora de los parámetros de calidad de estas fibras, mediante la generación de líneas transgénicas de plantas. En el presente proyecto se pretende profundizar en el conocimiento de las xiloglucano endotransglicosilasas (XET), enzimas claves en la construcción y modificación controlada de la red de xiloglucano-celulosa, estudiando su mecanismo de acción y su especificidad por sustrato. En este trabajo se estudia una XET de Populus tremula x tremuloides, concretamente la XET16A (Ptt-XET16A). Se diseña y se valida un nuevo ensayo enzimático mediante electroforesis capilar (HPCE), que permite el estudio cinético de las XET, utilizando oligosacáridos de xiloglucano de bajo peso molecular y de estructura conocida como sustratos. Estos sustratos han estado sintetizados en el presente trabajo y también por el equipo del Dr. Driguez en el CERMAV-CNRS. Se determina que el máximo de actividad de la Ptt-XET16A se da entre pH 5 y 5.5 y entre 30 y 40 ºC. Se demuestra que este enzima actúa mediante un mecanismo cinético bi-bi ping-pong, en el que el aceptor actúa como inhibidor competitivo del dador uniéndose al enzima libre y en el que, dependiendo del dador utilizado , éste también puede actuar como inhibidor competitivo del aceptor uniéndose en los subsitios positivos del intermedio glicosilo-enzima y dando diferentes reacciones secundarias como son la polimerización del dador o la elongación del producto, solamente si el dador presenta un grupo glucosilo en el extremo no reductor. Se evalúa una librería de xilogluco-oligosacáridos sintetizada por el equipo del Dr. Driguez en el CERMAV-CNRS como dadores de la Ptt-XET16A. De esta forma se profundiza en el conocimiento de la actividad de las XTHs, en el conocimiento de su especificidad por sustrato y se realiza un mapeo del centro activo del enzima, obteniéndose la contribución de los diferentes subsitios de la Ptt-XET16A en la estabilización del estado de transición de la reacción de transglicosidación catalizada por el enzima estudiado. Finalmente, se ha diseñado un sustrato bifuorogénico derivado del tetradecasacárido utilizado como sustrato estándar en el presente trabajo para medir las actividades hidrolasa y transglicosilasa de las XETs mediante fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). El sustrato biofluorogénico ha sido obtenido y caracterizado, sin embargo no se ha podido demostrar si este sustrato es adecuado para medir las actividades hidrolasa y transglicosilasas de las XETs, ya que las propiedades fluorescentes del marcador se han perdido durante la síntesis del sustrato. / The present work is part of an European project named E.D.E.N. (Enzyme Discovery in hybrid aspen for fibre ENgineering, QLK5-CT-2001-00443). The general objective of the project is to identify novel plant enzymes for deeper understanding of the process of fiber formation and modification for future improvement of the quality parameters of wood fibers. The present project pretends to increase the knowledge about xyloglucan endotransglycosylases (XET), which are thought to be key enzymes in the construction and controlled modification of the xyloglucan¬cellulose network. It is pretended to study the mechanism of action and the substrate specificity of a XET from Populus tremula x tremuloides, concretely XET16A (Ptt-XET16A). A new enzymatic assay based on capillary electrophoresis is designed and validated. This assay allows the kinetic study of XETs using as substrates, low molecular mass xyloglucan oligosaccharides with defined structures. These substrates have been synthesized in the present work and also in collaboration with Dr. Driguez team from CERMAV-CNRS. It is concluded that the maximum of activity of Ptt-XET16A is between pH 5 and 5.5 and 30 and 40 ºC. It is demonstrated that Ptt-XET16A follows a bi-bi ping-pong kinetic mechanism, in which the acceptor acts as competitive inhibitor of the donor binding to the free enzyme and depending on the donor used, this one can act also as competitive inhibitor of the acceptor binding to the acceptor subsites of the glycosyl-enzyme intermediate giving rise to side reaction such as donor polymerization and product elongation only in case that the donor shows a glucosyl residue in the non reducing end. A library of xylogluco-oligosaccharides, synthesized in CERMAV-CNRS by Dr. Driguez team, is evaluated as Ptt-XET16A donors. With this studies we are able to deeper understand the activity of XETs, their substrate specificity and a subsite maping of the binding cleft is done, obtaining the contribution of different subsites of Ptt-XET16A to the stabilization of the transition state of the transglycosylation reaction catalyzed by the studied enzyme. Finally, a bifluorogenic substrate derived from the tetradecasacharide used as standard substrate in this project has been designed to measure hydrolase and transferase activities of XET enzymes by fluorescense resonance energy transfer (FRET). The bifluorogenic substrate was obtained, however, it could not be demonstrated if it is an adequate substrate to measure hydrolase and transferase activities because the fluorescent properties of the label were lost during substrate synthesis.

Primary cell walls are a composite of cellulose microfibrilsand hemicelluloses. Xyloglucan is the principal hemicelluloseof primary cell walls of dicotyledons. Xyloglucanendotransglycosylases (XETs) cleave and religate xyloglucanpolymers in plant cell walls. A XET (PttXET16A) from hybridaspen has been heterologously expressed and characterized inour lab. To study XETs enzymology on a molecular level a series ofnovel xyloglucan oligosaccharides (XGOs) have been synthesized.The chromogenic 2-nitrophenol XGO and fluorogenic XGOs havebeen used as kinetic probes for PttXET16A. The first 3-Dstructure of the XET and of the enzyme-substrate complexrevealed new insights into the requirements fortransglycosylation. Cellulose fibers are an important raw material for manyindustries. In a novel chemo-enzymatic approach, thetransglycosylating activity of XET was used for biomimeticfiber surface modification. The aminoalditol XGO derivate wasused as key intermediate to incorporate novel chemicalfunctionality into xyloglucan. TheXGO derivatives wereintegrated into xyloglucan with PttXET16A. The resultingmodified xyloglucan was used as a versatile tool fiber surfacemodification.