{"title":"A new cold-active transglutaminase: Discovery, computational insights, and recombinant expression","authors":"Han Liu , Saisai Ding , Corinne Nardin , Yi Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.enzmictec.2025.110712","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transglutaminases (TGases) are versatile enzymes widely applied in food, biomedical, and material sciences, but the cold-active TGases are underexplored despite their significance in low-temperature bioprocessing. This study reports the identification, computational characterization, and recombinant expression of a new transglutaminase (akTGase) derived from the Antarctic krill transcriptome. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that akTGase was estimated of 84.76 kDa, possesses structural traits consistent with cold adaptation, including elevated hydrophilicity, high levels of methionine and aspartic acid but low arginine content, and high proportions of flexible regions. Molecular dynamics simulations at 4 °C and 25 °C showed enhanced surface flexibility and conformational stability at low temperature. Recombinant akTGase was produced in <em>E</em>. <em>coli</em>, recovered from inclusion bodies via stepwise dialysis, and assayed for enzymatic activity. The refolded akTGase displayed significantly higher specific activity at 4 °C than at 25 °C, confirming its cold-active nature. This work highlights a successful strategy combining transcriptomic mining, structural prediction, and experimental validation for the discovery of psychrophilic enzymes, particularly TGase, offering promising potential for sustainable applications in cold-adapted biocatalysis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11770,"journal":{"name":"Enzyme and Microbial Technology","volume":"191 ","pages":"Article 110712"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Enzyme and Microbial Technology","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141022925001322","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"BIOTECHNOLOGY & APPLIED MICROBIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Transglutaminases (TGases) are versatile enzymes widely applied in food, biomedical, and material sciences, but the cold-active TGases are underexplored despite their significance in low-temperature bioprocessing. This study reports the identification, computational characterization, and recombinant expression of a new transglutaminase (akTGase) derived from the Antarctic krill transcriptome. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that akTGase was estimated of 84.76 kDa, possesses structural traits consistent with cold adaptation, including elevated hydrophilicity, high levels of methionine and aspartic acid but low arginine content, and high proportions of flexible regions. Molecular dynamics simulations at 4 °C and 25 °C showed enhanced surface flexibility and conformational stability at low temperature. Recombinant akTGase was produced in E. coli, recovered from inclusion bodies via stepwise dialysis, and assayed for enzymatic activity. The refolded akTGase displayed significantly higher specific activity at 4 °C than at 25 °C, confirming its cold-active nature. This work highlights a successful strategy combining transcriptomic mining, structural prediction, and experimental validation for the discovery of psychrophilic enzymes, particularly TGase, offering promising potential for sustainable applications in cold-adapted biocatalysis.
期刊介绍:
Enzyme and Microbial Technology is an international, peer-reviewed journal publishing original research and reviews, of biotechnological significance and novelty, on basic and applied aspects of the science and technology of processes involving the use of enzymes, micro-organisms, animal cells and plant cells.
We especially encourage submissions on:
Biocatalysis and the use of Directed Evolution in Synthetic Biology and Biotechnology
Biotechnological Production of New Bioactive Molecules, Biomaterials, Biopharmaceuticals, and Biofuels
New Imaging Techniques and Biosensors, especially as applicable to Healthcare and Systems Biology
New Biotechnological Approaches in Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics
Metabolic Engineering, Biomolecular Engineering and Nanobiotechnology
Manuscripts which report isolation, purification, immobilization or utilization of organisms or enzymes which are already well-described in the literature are not suitable for publication in EMT, unless their primary purpose is to report significant new findings or approaches which are of broad biotechnological importance. Similarly, manuscripts which report optimization studies on well-established processes are inappropriate. EMT does not accept papers dealing with mathematical modeling unless they report significant, new experimental data.