Les virus sont au centre de problème de santé publique. En raison de l'apparition de nouveaux virus et pour certains de leur résistance aux traitements existants il est toujours d’actualité de développement de nouveaux agents antiviraux. En général, la stratégie de lutte contre les infections virales est basée sur la vaccination ou sur l'activité des petites molécules, interférant avec un ou plusieurs processus biologiques participant au cycle de vie du virus. Dans ce contexte, nous avons conçu et synthétisé des petites bibliothèques de molécules visant des propriétés anti-filovirus. Dans ce projet de recherche, nous avons mis l'accent sur le développement de composés ciblant la protéine Niemann-Pick C1, les protéases cathepsine et le processus de réplication. Lors du développement des inhibiteurs de Neimann-Pick C1 plus de 70 composés ont été synthétisés, portant le squelette pipérazine. Afin d'obtenir des inhibiteurs de cystéine cathepsines pouvant être impliqués dans la réplication du virus Ebola, nous avons synthétisé une petite bibliothèque de composés porteurs de groupement 1,3,5-triazine et possédant des activité de l’ordre du nanomolaire sur les cathepsines B, K, L et S. Enfin, pour inhiber la réplication du virus en ciblant SAH hydrolase, nous avons proposé une série de C-nucléosides carbocyclic ayant motif de 4-aza-7,9-dideazaadenosine. / The viruses cause the problem of public health. Due to the appearance of new viruses and their resistance to existing treatments there is still relevant to develop new antivirals. Generally, the strategy to combat viral infections is based on vaccination or on the activity of small molecules, interfering with one or more biological processes participating in virus life cycle. In this context, we took an effort to design and synthesize the library of small molecules possessing anti-filovirus properties. In this research project, we were focused on the developing of compounds targeting Niemann-Pick C1 protein, cathepsin proteases and replication process. In our effort into the development of the inhibitors of Neimann-Pick C1 we prepared the series of about 70 compounds, having in common the piperazine moiety. Diverse 1,4-N,N - substituents of piperazine, differencing in a size and shape were studied. In order to obtain efficient cysteine cathepsins inhibitors, we synthesized the small library of compounds bearing 1,3,5-triazine moiety. Finally, to inhibit the virus replication by targeting SAH hydrolase, we proposed the series of carbocyclic C-nucleosides having motif of 4-aza-7,9-dideazaadenosine.

Cette thèse a été réalisée dans le cadre du projet Futurol, un projet national français qui vise à produire du bioéthanol à partir de biomasses végétales telles que le bois ou la paille de céréale. Pour cela, la biomasse doit être prétraitée puis digérée enzymatiquement pour libérer des sucres fermentescibles. Ma contribution dans ce projet a été de découvrir des enzymes originales pour l’hydrolyse de l’hémicellulose, un hétéropolysaccharide, constituant majeur de la paroi cellulaire des cellules végétales. Afin de rechercher de nouveaux biocatalyseurs, une approche de métagénomique a été adoptée afin de sonder les intestins de deux espèces de termites : N. corniger, un termite xylophage, et T. hispaniolae un termite humivore / xylophage. 30 000 clones métagénomiques ont été criblés sur 10 substrats cellulosiques et hémicellulosique, et 660 hits ont été obtenus. La comparaison phénotypique a montré une différence claire entre ces deux banques, probablement liée au régime alimentaire des deux espèces de termite. Le séquençage de 45 clones N. corniger a révélé 120 séquences codant pour des enzymes originales, de nombreuses étant multimodulaires et / ou organisées en cluster de gènes. Dans un second temps, une approche à haut-débit a été adoptée pour le clonage, l’expression et la caractérisation légère de 104 enzymes entières ou formes tronquées. 45 protéines recombinantes ont été produites de manière soluble, et les activités de 19 enzymes et de 12 modules enzymatiques ont été montrées, permettant la mise au point d’une boite à outil hemicellulolytique. Dans certains cas, l’activité de modules classés « Inconnus » a pu être déterminée. Cette approche a été particulièrement pertinente dans le cas de Pm69, une enzyme multimodulaire GH3-UNK-CBM48-CE1 montrant les 3 activités glucosidase, xylosidase and estérase. Cette étude a permis de poser les bases d’un brevet sur cette enzyme. D’un autre côté, les enzymes ayant montré une activité xylanase ou féruloyle-estérase se sont révélées complémentaires d’un cocktail cellulolytique durant la dégradation de paille de blé prétraitée. Enfin, dans une troisième partie, nous avons étudié un fragment d’ADN provenant la banque P. militaris, codant pour 19 ORFs et appartenant à une espèce du genre Bacteroides. La caractérisation biochimique d’Abn43A, Abn43B, Abf51A et Abf51B-trunc a montré que ces 4 enzymes portent des actions complémentaires sur l’hydrolyse de l’arabinane, et qu’elles peuvent agir de manière synergique pour la dégradation de ce polymère pectique. Enfin, l’étude détaillée des 19 ORFs codées sur ce fragment d’ADN nous a permis de proposer un schéma global de détection, d’hydrolyse et de métabolisation de l’arabinane par cette espèce du genre Bacteroides. / This thesis was performed in the context of the Futurol project, a French national project that aims at producing bioethanol from plant biomass such as wood and cereal straw. To reach that goal, the biomass must be pretreated, and enzymatically degraded to release fermentable simple sugar. My implication in that project was to discover original enzymes that can hydrolyze the hemicellulose, a major heteropolysaccharide found in plant cell wall.To mine for new biocatalysts, the gut microbial communities of two species of termite were investigated by a metagenomic approach : Nasutitermes corniger, a wood-feeder termite, and Termes hispaniolae supposed to be a soil-wood feeder. 30 000 metagenomic clones were screened on an array of 10 cellulosic and hemicellulosic substrates and 660 hits were obtained. Phenotypic comparison showed clear differences between both environments, probably related to the diet of the termite. The sequence of 45 N. corniger metagenomic inserts revealed 120 original sequences encoding for putative enzymes of interest. Original sequences encoding for multimodular enzymes were revealed and many ORFs were organized in clusters, suggesting that these enzymes are encoded on Polysaccharides Utilization Locus. In a second part, a high-throughput approach was used for the cloning, the expression and the slight characterization of 104 full-size and truncated enzymes. Forty five recombinant proteins were produced soluble, and their investigation revealed the activity of 19 enzymes and of 12 enzymatic modules, representing a hemicellulolytic tool-box for endo- and exo-type activities. In some cases, the implication of “Unkown” domains in the activity of multimodular enzymes was demonstrated. This approach was particularly efficient for the study of the GH3-UNKCBM48-CE1 Pm69, and this study triggered the patent process for this multiactive glucosidase, xylosidase and esterase. The xylanases and the feruloyl esterases were shown to be particularly efficient to supplement cellulolytic cocktails on pretreated wheat straw. In a third part, we investigated a DNA fragment belonging to a species of the genus Bacteroides and that encoded 19 ORFs. The biochemical characterization of Abn43A, Abn43B, Abf51A and Abf51B-trunc showed that these four enzymes harbored complementary actions for the hydrolysis of the arabinan, and that they can act synergistically for the hydrolysis of this pectic polymer. We also revealed that Abn43B had an original mode of action that we classified as exo-arabinanase. Finally, the in-depth study of the 19 ORFs allowed us to propose the entire scheme for arabinan detection, hydrolysis and utilization by the Bacteroides species carrying this DNA sequence

The enzymatic degradation of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) occurs at mild reaction conditions and may find applications in environmentally friendly plastic waste recycling processes. The hydrolytic activity of the homologous polyester hydrolases LC cutinase (LCC) from a compost metagenome and TfCut2 from Thermobifida fusca KW3 against PET films was strongly influenced by the reaction medium buffers tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris), 3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid (MOPS), and sodium phosphate. LCC showed the highest initial hydrolysis rate of PET films in 0.2 M Tris, while the rate of TfCut2 was 2.1-fold lower at this buffer concentration. At a Tris concentration of 1 M, the hydrolysis rate of LCC decreased by more than 90% and of TfCut2 by about 80%. In 0.2 M MOPS or sodium phosphate buffer, no significant differences in the maximum initial hydrolysis rates of PET films by both enzymes were detected. When the concentration of MOPS was increased to 1 M, the hydrolysis rate of LCC decreased by about 90%. The activity of TfCut2 remained low compared to the increasing hydrolysis rates observed at higher concentrations of sodium phosphate buffer. In contrast, the activity of LCC did not change at different concentrations of this buffer. An inhibition study suggested a competitive inhibition of TfCut2 and LCC by Tris and MOPS. Molecular docking showed that Tris and MOPS interfered with the binding of the polymeric substrate in a groove located at the protein surface. A comparison of the Ki values and the average binding energies indicated MOPS as the stronger inhibitor of the both enzymes.

Der Actinomycet T. fusca KW3, isoliert aus Kompost, bildete während der Kultivierung im Mineralsalz-Spurenelement-Vitamin-Minimalmedium nach Zusatz von PET-Fasern eine 52 kDa Carboxylesterase (TfCa), welche effizient zyklische PET Trimere (CTR) hydrolysiert. Die TfCa besitzt einen pI von 4,8, eine Substratspezifität gegenüber kurzkettigen p-Nitrophenyl-Estern und wird durch Phenylmethylsulfonylfluorid (PMSF) und Tosyl-L-Phenylalanin-Chloromethylketon (TPCK) in der Aktivität gehemmt. Die Carboxylesterase hydrolysiert kein Cutin oder Poly-ε-caprolacton (PCL). CTR hingegen wurden durch die TfCa mit einem Km von 0,5 mM und einer Vmax von 9,3 μmol/min/mg bei optimalen Bedingungen (60°C, pH 6) hydrolysiert. Das aktive Zentrum der Carboxylesterase besteht aus den Aminosäuren Ser185, Glu319 und His415, wobei das Serin in das katalytische Motiv G-E-S-A-G eingebettet ist. Während der Reaktion setzte die TfCa auch Hydrolyseprodukte aus PET-Fasern und -Filmen frei. Der Nachweis der Hydrolyse erfolgte durch Umkehrphasen-Hochleistungsflüssigkeitschromatographie der Abbauprodukte und bei den PET-Filmen zusätzlich mittels Rasterelektronenmikroskopie. Dabei zeigte die Carboxylesterase verglichen mit anderen PET-Hydrolasen eine geringere Effizienz, was durch die Lage des aktiven Zentrums in einer Bindungstasche und der daraus folgenden schlechten Zugänglichkeit für polymere Substrate begründet werden kann. Bei der Hydrolyse der viel kleineren CTR war die TfCa deutlich effektiver, was auf eine höhere Spezifität gegenüber kurzkettigen PET Substraten hinweist.:Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Einführung 1 1.1 Actinomyceten 1 1.1.1 Klassifizierung 1 1.1.2 Thermobifida (Thermomonospora) fusca 2 1.2 Biopolyester Cutin und Suberin 4 1.2.1 Bestandteile des Cutins 4 1.2.2 Bestandteile des Suberins 5 1.2.3 Struktur der Biopolymere 7 1.3 Hydrolasen 12 1.3.1 Struktur und katalytischer Mechanismus 12 1.3.2 Carboxylesterasen 16 1.3.3 Lipasen 19 1.3.4 Cutinasen 22 1.4 Polyethylenterephthalat 23 1.4.1 Konventionelle PET-Faserbehandlung 24 1.4.2 Charakterisierung von PET 26 1.4.3 Biofunktionalisierung von PET 30 1.4.4 PET-Hydrolasen 38 1.5 Zielsetzung 49 2 Material und Methoden 50 2.1 Materialien 50 2.1.1 Verwendete Mikroorganismen 50 2.1.2 Verwendete Enzyme 50 2.1.3 Größenstandards 51 2.1.3.1 Low Molecular Weight Marker (GE Healthcare) 51 2.1.3.2 Roti®-Mark Standard (Fa. Carl Roth GmbH) 51 2.1.3.3 SpectraTM Multicolor Broad range Protein Ladder (Fermentas) 51 2.1.3.4 PageRulerTM plus prestained protein ladder (Fermentas) 51 2.1.3.5 Kalibrierungskit für pI Bestimmung (pH 3-10, GE Healthcare) 52 2.1.3.6 Kalibrierungskit für die Größenausschlusschromatographie (LMW, GE Healthcare) 52 2.1.4 Chemikalien 53 2.1.5 Geräte und Materialien 55 VI 2.1.6 Software 58 2.1.7 Nährmedien 58 2.1.8 Suberin- und Cutin-Präparationen 60 2.1.9 PET-Substrate für die Abbauuntersuchungen 60 2.1.10 Puffer und Lösungen 60 2.2 Mikrobiologische Methoden 65 2.2.1 Stammhaltung und Kultivierung 65 2.2.2 Mikroskopische Untersuchungen 65 2.2.3 Trockengewichtsbestimmung 65 2.3 Proteinchemische Methoden 66 2.3.1 Proteinaufreinigung der Wildtyp TfCa 66 2.3.2 Proteinaufreinigung der rekombinanten TfCa, TfCut1 und TfCut2 67 2.4 Analytische Methoden 67 2.4.1 Esterase-Aktivitätsbestimmung 67 2.4.1.1 Bestimmung mittels Spektrophotometer 68 2.4.1.2 Bestimmung mittels Plattenleser 68 2.4.2 Cutinase-Aktivitätsbestimmung 68 2.4.3 PCL-Abbauuntersuchung 69 2.4.3.1 Bestimmung mittels Hofbildung 69 2.4.3.2 Bestimmung mittels Plattenleser 69 2.4.4 Quantitative Protein-Bestimmung nach Bradford (1976) 69 2.4.5 SDS Polyacrylamidgelelektrophorese (SDS-PAGE) 70 2.4.5.1 Esteraseaktivitäts-Färbung 70 2.4.5.2 Coomassie-Färbung 71 2.4.5.3 Silberfärbung der Proteine 71 2.4.6 Bestimmung des pI 71 2.4.7 Bestimmung der Molaren Masse 72 2.4.8 Bestimmung der Temperatur und pH-Wert Stabilität 72 2.4.9 Bestimmung der Stabilität gegenüber Inhibitoren 72 2.4.10 Bestimmung der kinetischen Konstanten für die Hydrolyse von p-NP Ester 72 2.4.11 Bestimmung der kinetische Konstanten für die Hydrolyse von CTR 73 2.4.12 Bestimmung optimaler Temperatur und pH-Wert für die Hydrolyse von CTR 73 2.4.13 N-terminale Sequenzierung 73 2.4.14 MALDI-TOF Sequenzierung 74 2.4.15 Abbaustudien 74 VII 2.4.16 Analytik der PET Abbauprodukte 75 2.4.17 Konzentrationabhängige CTR-Abbaustudien 75 2.5 Homologie-Modelling der TfCa und weitere PET-Hydrolasen 76 3 Ergebnisse und Diskussion 77 3.1 Screening nach PET-Hydrolasen aus T. fusca 77 3.1.1 Wachstum von T. fusca KW3 im Czapek-Medium 77 3.1.2 Wachstum von T. fusca KW3 im MSV-Medium 78 3.1.2.1 Esterasebildung mit verschiedenen synthetischen und natürlichen Polyestern 78 3.1.2.2 Esterasebildung mit einer Suberinpräparation 81 3.1.2.3 Esterasebildung mit PET-Fasern 83 3.1.3 Esterasebildung bei T. fusca KW3 DSM 6013, T. fusca DSM 43792 und DSM 43793 mit PET-Fasern und Diethylterephthalat 85 3.2 Charakterisierung der PET-Hydrolasen aus T. fusca KW3 95 3.2.1 Aufreinigung 95 3.2.1.1 Aufreinigung der TfCa 95 3.2.1.2 Aufreinigung der rekombinanten PET-Hydrolasen 105 3.2.2 pI der TfCa 113 3.2.3 Molare Masse der TfCa 113 3.2.4 Temperatur- und pH-Stabilität der TfCa 114 3.2.5 Wirkung von Inhibitoren auf die TfCa 117 3.2.6 Kinetik der Hydrolyse von verschiedenen Esterasesubstraten durch die TfCa 118 3.2.7 Optimale Temperatur und optimaler pH-Wert der CTR-Hydrolyse durch die TfCa 119 3.2.8 Cutinaseaktivität der TfCa 120 3.2.9 PCL-Abbau durch die TfCa 121 3.2.10 N-terminale Sequenz der TfCa 122 3.2.11 MALDI-TOF Sequenzierung der TfCa 123 3.2.12 Homologie-Modeling der TfCa und Vergleich der Struktur mit anderen Hydrolasen 126 3.2.13 Vergleich der TfCa mit bekannten PET-Hydrolasen 128 3.3 Hydrolyse von PET Substraten durch prokaryotische und eukaryotische Hydrolasen 138 3.3.1 Partielle Hydrolyse von APET-Filmen durch die PET-Hydrolasen 140 3.3.2 Partielle Hydrolyse von PET-Fasern durch die PET-Hydrolasen 148 3.3.3 Hydrolyse von PET-Trimeren durch die PET-Hydrolasen 151 4 Zusammenfassung 165 VIII 5 Literaturverzeichnis 166 6 Publikationen 181 7 Poster und Vorträge 182 8 Lebenslauf 183

Une approche de métagénomique fonctionnelle a été mise en œuvre afin d’étudier les arsenaux enzymatiques produits par les microbiotes intestinaux de termites phytophages et d’identifier de nouvelles enzymes impliquées dans l’hydrolyse des polysaccharides végétaux, notamment des hétéroxylanes. Le criblage à haut débit des banques métagénomiques constituées à partir de trois espèces de termites sur une gamme de substrats chromogéniques a permis d’identifier plusieurs centaines de clones à activité dépolymérisante (glucanase, xylanase, mannanase, arabinanase), ainsi que des clones exprimant des activités auxiliaires (α-L-arabinofuranosidases, β-D-xylosidases, cellobiose hydrolases). Un total de 42 clones métagénomiques a été séquencé, générant 1,5 Mpb d’ADN assemblé en 58 séquences contigües d’une taille moyenne de 37,8 Kbp. 63 nouvelles Glycoside Hydrolases (GH) ont été identifiées. Ces dernières représentent 19 familles de la classification CAZy, dont les familles GH3, GH8, GH10, GH11, GH43 et GH51. Enfin, huit nouvelles enzymes des familles GH43 et GH51 ont été produites chez E. coli et leurs propriétés biochimiques ont été étudiées. Ces enzymes présentent des activités α-L-arabinofuranosidase, β-D-xylosidase ou L-arabinanase / A functional metagenomics approach was used to reveal the enzymatic diversity present in the guts of biomass-feeding termites and to identify enzymes involved in the degradation of biomass components, notably heteroxylans. High-throughput screening of metagenomic libraries, created using three different termite species, was performed using a variety of chromogenic substrates. This allowed the discovery of hundreds of clones expressing targeted biomass-degrading activities (e.g. depolymerases such as glucanase, xylanase, mannanase arabinanase and auxiliary activities such as α-L-arabinofuranosidases, β-D-xylosidases and cellobiohydrolases). A total of 42 clones were selected for a DNA sequence analysis, thus generating 1.5 Mbp that were assembled into 58 contiguous sequences. 63 new Glycoside Hydrolases (GH) belonging to 19 different families of the CAZy classification were identified, including ones from families GH3, GH8, GH10, GH11, GH43 and GH51. Finally, eight new enzymes, from families GH43 and GH51, were produced in E. coli and their biochemical properties were studied. These enzymes display α-L-arabinofuranosidase, β-D-xylosidase or arabinanase activities

As mudanças climáticas estão causando prejuízos em vários setores da economia mundial. Na reunião da COP21, que teve como foco estas mudanças climáticas, participantes do mundo todo decidiram tomar atitudes urgentes para tentar conter aumento da temperatura média global. Dentro deste cenário, a produção e o consumo de energia têm uma importância central, onde fontes de energia renováveis vêm sendo preferidas às fontes de energias fósseis. O Brasil tem uma participação importante na geração de energia renovável mundial aportando um 40% do total de sua matriz energética. A degradação dos componentes da parede celular vegetal tem um vasto potencial na geração de biocombustíveis e outros compostos verdes a partir da celulose, hemicelulose e lignina. Para isto estudos das enzimas capazes de degradas estes componentes vem sendo realizados, com ênfase nas enzimas hidrolases de glicosídeos. Dentre as hidrolases, encontram-se as arabinanases, enzimas capazes de hidrolisar o arabinano, componente polissacídeo da hemicelulose, em L-arabinose. Neste trabalho, estudos envolvendo duas arabinanases de Bacillus licheniformis foram realizados, iniciando na etapa de clonagem dos genes. Os produtos foram transformados em Escherichia coli e expressos e purificados. A avaliação da estabilidade térmica indicou uma afinidade das enzimas por metais divalentes. Tentativas de cristalização resultaram na formação de um cristal, que possibilitou a determinação da estrutura uma das arabinanases. Através de ensaios bioquímicos, foi determinada a especificidade por substrato, temperatura e pH ótimos e a atividade frente a metais. Foi observado que as enzimas são seletivas para arabinano não ramificado, tem temperatura ótima em 45 e 40 graus, para BlAbn-1 e BlAbn-2, respectivamente, e pH ótimo em 8 e 7. Por último, foram realizados ensaios complementares de sinergismo e atividade oxidativa. Embora os ensaios de atividade oxidativa tenham sido inconclusivos, os ensaios de sinergismo mostraram que a enzima BlAbn-1 é capaz de aumentar em 30% a atividade do coquetel enzimático Accellerase 1500 sobre biomassa pré-tratada e sobre celulose pura. Este efeito é ainda maior na presença de sulfato de níquel. / Climate change is causing losses in different sectors of the world economy. At the meeting of COP21, focused on climate changes, participants from around the world decided to take urgent actions to try to halt the increase in global average temperature. Within this scenario, the production and consumption of energy are of central importance, where renewable energy sources have been preferred to fossil fuels. Brazil has an important role in the global renewable energy generation by contributing 40% of its total energy mix. The degradation of the components of plant cell wall has a vast potential in the generation of biofuels and other green chemical from cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. Thus, studies of enzymes that degrade these components have been carried out, with emphasis on glycoside hydrolases. Among the hydrolases are the arabinanases, enzymes capable of hydrolyzing arabinan, a polysaccharide component of hemicellulose, in L-arabinose. In this work, studies involving two arabinanases from Bacillus licheniformis were carried out, starting in gene cloning step. The products were transformed into Escherichia coli, expressed and purified. The evaluation of the thermal stability of the enzymes showed an affinity for divalent metals. Crystallization attempts resulted in the formation of a single crystal, which made it possible to determine the crystal structure of one arabinanase. Through biochemical assays, it was determined the substrate specificity, optimum temperature and pH and activity against metals. It was observed that the enzymes are selective for non-branched arabinan, have optimum temperature at 45 and 40 degrees, to BlAbn-1 and BlAbn-2, respectively, and optimum pH of 8 and 7. Finally, additional tests were performed to evaluate the possible synergism and oxidative activity. Although the oxidative activity assays were inconclusive, the synergism tests showed that BlAbn-1 is able to increase by 30% the activity of the enzymatic cocktail Accellerase 1500 on pre-treated biomass and on pure cellulose. This effect is even greater in the presence of nickel sulfate.

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) including anandamide are lipid derivative molecules, which play vital roles in physiological and developmental processes in plants and animals and mediate stress responses. In mammals, NAEs are synthesized from hydrolysis of their precursor molecule N-acylphosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE) by NAPE-specific phospholipaseD (NAPE-PLD). All NAEs including anandamide (NAE20:4) are hydrolyzed by fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) into free fatty acid and ethanolamine. To date, different NAEs including anandamide have been identified in Physcomitrella patens but its metabolic pathway remains undiscovered. It is hypothesized that NAE metabolic pathway in P. patens is conserved and is similar to that of other eukaryotic systems. To this extent, putative PpNAPE-PLD and PpFAAH were identified and cloned for heterologous expression and characterization. Expression of PpFAAH was further verified by Western blot analysis. Future studies will involve biochemical characterization of putative PpNAPE-PLD and PpFAAH, to establish the evolutionarily conserved nature of NAE functions in early land plants.

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) with C12-C18 acyl chain are ubiquitous in seed plants and play a role in mediating abscisic acid (ABA)-dependent or -independent responses to stress. In moss Physcomitrella patens, using selective lipidomics approach, we recently identified the occurrence of anandamide or N-arachidonylethanolamide (NAE 20:4) and its precursors that were previously not reported in plants. Occurrence of anandamide in moss provides us with a unique opportunity to address if early land plants retained NAE-mediated signaling mechanism that is akin to animals but not to vascular plants. It is hypothesized that a distinctive NAE profile and metabolic pathway occurs in P. patens. To this extent, putative genes that might be responsible for anandamide metabolic pathway were identified and their expression levels were determined for three developmental stages of moss. The NAE metabolite levels and transcript levels for putative genes were higher in protonema stage and anandamide showed higher growth inhibitory effects, chlorophyll reduction, and putative gene induction than NAE 12:0, compared to ABA, when applied exogenously.

<p>This thesis describes the structural studies of four different proteins from two organisms. Xyloglucan endotransglycosylases, XETs, are involved in plant cell wall expansion and remodeling by splitting and reconnecting xyloglucan-cellulose crosslinks. The first crystal structure of a XET enzyme has been determined to 1.8 Å. The structure provides insights into how XETs are able to bind a heavily branched xyloglucan sugar, as well as hints about the XET-transglycosylation mechanism.</p><p><i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> (Mtb) is the cause of enormous human mortality each year. Despite the sequencing of the complete Mtb-genome, the biological function of a large fraction of the <i>M. tuberculosis </i>proteins is still unknown. We here report the crystal structures of three such proteins, Rv2740, Rv0216 and Rv0130. Rv2740 forms a Cystatin α+b fold with a deep active site pocket similar to a limonene-1,2-epoxide hydrolase from <i>Rhodococcus erythropolis</i>. However, in contrast to the small limonene-based substrate of the <i>Rhodococcus</i> enzyme, Rv2740 is able to degrade large fatty acid and sterol epoxides, giving suggestions for the physiological substrates of this enzyme.</p><p>The structure of <i>M. tuberculosis</i> Rv0216 exhibits a so-called double hotdog fold. Rv0216 shows similarity to a number of enzymes using thiol esters as substrates, including several <i>R</i>-enoyl hydratases and β-hydroxyacyl dehydratases. However, only parts of the hydratase / dehydratase catalytic site are conserved in Rv0216. Rv0130 in contrast, contains a highly conserved <i>R</i>-hydratase motif, housed in a dimer of two single hotdog folded molecules. This active site is situated in a long tunnel, formed by a sharp kink in the Rv0130 central helix. A number of previously predicted single / double hotdog folded proteins from <i>M. tuberculosis</i> seem to feature a similar substrate-binding tunnel, indicating that Rv0130 as well as some of these proteins, might act on long fatty enoyl chains. </p>

This thesis describes structural and binding studies in enzymes from two different  organisms: ribonucleotide reductase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (RNR) and lipase A from Candida antarctica (CalA). RNR is viable as a target for new drugs against the causative agent of tuberculosis. The biologically active form of RNR is a heterotetramer with an α2β2 substructure. Here we show that an N-acetylated heptapeptide based on the C-terminal sequence of the smaller RNR subunit can disrupt the formation of the holoenzyme sufficiently to inhibit its function. An N-terminal truncation, an alanine scan and a novel statistical molecular design approach based on the heptapeptide Ac-Glu-Asp-Asp-Asp-Trp-Asp-Phe-OH were applied. A full-length acetylated heptapeptide was necessary for inhibition, and Trp5 and Phe7 were also essential. Exchanging the acetyl for the N-terminal Fmoc protective-group increased the binding potency ten-fold. Based on this, several truncated and N-protected peptides were evaluated in a competitive fluorescence polarization assay. The single-amino acid Fmoc-Trp inhibits the RNR holoenzyme formation with a dissociation constant of 12µM, making it an attractive candidate for further development of non-peptidic inhibitors Lipases are enzymes with major biotechnological applications. We report the x-ray structure of CalA, the first member of a novel family of lipases. The fold includes a well-defined lid as well as a classical α/β hydrolase domain. The structure is that of the closed/inactive state of the enzyme, but loop movements near Phe431 will provide virtually unlimited access to solvent for the alcohol moiety of an ester substrate. The structure thus provides a basis for understanding the enzyme's preference for acyl moieties with long, straight tails, and for its highly promiscuous acceptance of widely different alcohol and amine moieties. An unconventional oxyanion hole is observed in the present structure, although the situation may change during interfacial activation.