• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.6
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• pp.535-539
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• 2005

The thermoacidophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum has long been known to utilize D-glucose via the non-phosphorylated Entner-Doudoroff (nED) pathway. We now report the identification of a gene encoding 2-keto-3-deoxy-D-gluconate (KDG) kinase. The discovery of this gene implies the presence of a glycolysis pathway, other than the nED pathway. It was found that Ta0122 in the T. acidophilum genome corresponded to KDG kinase. This enzyme shares no similarity with known KDG kinases, and belongs to a novel class of sugar kinases. Of the five sugars tested only KDG was utilized as a substrate.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.344-350
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• 2006

Thermoplasma acidophilum is a thermoacidophilic archaeon that grows optimally at $59^{\circ}C$ and pH 2. Along with another thermoacidophilic archaeon, Sulfolobus solfataricus, it is known to metabolize glucose by the non-phosphorylated Entner-Doudoroff (nED) pathway. In the course of these studies, the specific activities of glyceraldehyde dehydrogenase and glycerate kinase, two enzymes that are involved in the downstream part of the nED pathway, were found to be much higher in T. acidophilum than in S. solfataricus. To characterize glycerate kinase, the enzyme was purified to homogeneity from T. acidophilum cell extracts. The N-terminal sequence of the purified enzyme was in exact agreement with that of Ta0453m in the genome database, with the removal of the initiator methionine. Furthermore, the enzyme was a monomer with a molecular weight of 49kDa and followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics with $K_m$ values of 0.56 and 0.32mM for DL-glycerate and ATP, respectively. The enzyme also exhibited excellent thermal stability at $70^{\circ}C$. Of the seven sugars and four phosphate donors tested, only DL-glycerate and ATP were utilized by glycerate kinase as substrates. In addition, a coupled enzyme assay indicated that 2-phosphoglycerate was produced as a product. When divalent metal ions, such as $Mn^{2+},\;CO^{2+},\;Ni^{2+},\;Zn^{2+},\;Ca^{2+},\;and\;Sr^{2+}$, were substituted for $Mg^{2+}$ the enzyme activities were less than 10% of that obtained in the presence of $Mg^{2+}$. The amino acid sequence of T. acidophilum glycerate kinase showed no similarity with E. coli glycerate kinases, which belong to the first glycerate kinase family. This is the first report on the biochemical characterization of an enzyme which belongs to a member of the second glycerate kinase family.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.283-286
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• 2008

The methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase/cyclohydrolase (MTHFDC) from the thermoacidophilic archaeon Thermoplasma acidophilum is a 30.6kDa molecular-mass enzyme that sequentially catalyzes the conversion of formyltetrahydrofollate to methylenetetrahydrofolate, with a preference for NADP as a cofactor, rather than NAD. In order to elucidate the functional and structural features of MTHFDC from archaeons at a molecular level, it was overexpressed in Escherichia coli and crystallized in the presence of its cofactor, NADP, at 295K using polyethylene glycol (PEG) 4000 as a precipitant. The crystal is a member of the monoclinic space group $P2_1$, with the following unit cell parameters: $a=66.333{\AA},\;b=52.868{\AA},\;c=86.099{\AA},\;and\;{\beta}=97.570^{\circ}$, and diffracts to a resolution of at least $2.40{\AA}$ at the synchrotron. Assuming a dimer in the crystallographic asymmetric unit, the calculated Matthews parameter $(V_M)\;was\;2.44{\AA}^3/Da$ and the solvent content was 49.7%.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.104-110
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• 2012

Glycosynthase is an active site nucleophile mutant enzyme, prepared from glycosidase, which is capable of synthesizing oligosaccharide derivatives without the hydrolysis of the product. Thermoacidophilic ${\alpha}$-glucosidase of Thermoplasma acidophilum (AglA) exhibits a transglycosylating activity yielding various glycosides. AglA was converted to glycosynthase by the substitution of the catalytic nucleophile Asp-408 residue into non-nucleophile glycine in order to increase its ability to synthesize various glycosides by transglycosylation. The glycosynthase mutant was purified by Ni-NTA chromatography and its glycoside-synthesizing activity was measured by using an external nucleophile, sodium formate buffer, providing maltose as a donor and p-nitrophenyl-${\alpha}$-D-glucopyranoside ($pNP{\alpha}G$) as an acceptor, respectively. In addition, $pNP{\alpha}G$ was examined for its feasibility to act as both a donor and an acceptor, and products were compared with those of the wildtype enzyme. The mutant enzyme was found to catalyze the formation of a specific product from $pNP{\alpha}G$ with a yield of 42.5% without further hydrolysis, while the wild-type enzyme produced two $pNP{\alpha}G$ products at low yields. The results demonstrate the possibility of satisfactory yields for the reactions in the presence of small amounts of acceptor, and demonstrate that the high activity of the mutant, at pHs below neutrality, was applicable in the transfer of glucose from the natural donor.

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.548-548
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korea Crystallographic Association Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2007

• 한국생물공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.418-418
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• 2005

• Journal of Photoscience
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.121-127
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• 2004

The${\beta}$-glucosidases occur widely in all living organisms and has in general a tendency to form oligomers of varying numbers of subunits or aggregates, although the functional implications of such diverse oligomerization schemes remain unclear. In particular, the assembly mode of the oat ${\beta}$-glucosidase is very unique in that it multimerizes by linear stacking of a hexameric building block to form long fibrillar multimers. Some structural proteins such as actin and tubulin assemble into long fibrils in a helical fashion and several enzymes such as GroEL and Pyrodictium ATPase functional complexes, 20S proteasome of the archaebacterium Thermoplasma acidophilum, and lutamine synthetase fromblue-green algae, assemble into discrete oligomers upto 4 stacked rings to maintain their enzymatic activities. In particular, oat ${\beta}$-glucosidase exists in vivo as a discrete long fibrillar multimer assembly that is a novel structure for enzyme protein. It is assembled by linear stacking of hollow trimeric units. The fibril has a long central tunnel connecting to the outer medium via regularly distributed side fenestrations. The enzyme active sites are located within the central tunnel and multimerization increases enzyme affinity to the substrates and catalytic efficiency of the enzyme. Although it is suggested that oligomerization may contribute to the enzyme stability and catalytic efficiency of ${\beta}$-glycosidases, the functional implications of such diverse oligomerization schemes remain unclear so far.