The Homogalacturonan Deconstruction System of Paenibacillus amylolyticus 27C64 Requires No Extracellular Pectin Methylesterase and Has Significant Industrial Potential

Pectin is an important structural polysaccharide found in most plant cell walls. In the environment, pectin degradation is part of the decomposition process that turns over dead plant material and is important to organisms that feed on plants. Industrially, pectinases are used to improve the quality of fruit juices and can also be used to process coffee cherries or tea leaves. These enzymes may also prove useful in reducing the environmental impact of paper and cotton manufacturing. This work is significant because it focuses on a Gram-positive bacterium that is evolutionarily distinct from other well-studied pectin-degrading organisms and differs from known systems in key ways. Most importantly, a simplified extracellular deconstruction process in this organism is able to break down pectins without first removing the methyl groups that inhibit other systems. Moreover, some of the enzymes described here have the potential to improve industrial processes that rely on pectin deconstruction. ABSTRACT Paenibacillus amylolyticus 27C64, a Gram-positive bacterium with diverse plant cell wall polysaccharide deconstruction capabilities, was isolated previously from an insect hindgut. Previous work suggested that this organism’s pectin deconstruction system differs from known systems in that its sole pectin methylesterase is cytoplasmic, not extracellular. In this work, we have characterized the specific roles of key extracellular pectinases involved in homogalacturonan deconstruction, including four pectate lyases and one pectin lyase. We show that one newly characterized pectate lyase, PelC, has a novel substrate specificity, with a lower Km for highly methylated pectins than for polygalacturonic acid. PelC works synergistically with PelB, a high-turnover exo-pectate lyase that releases Δ4,5-unsaturated trigalacturonate as its major product. It is likely that PelC frees internal stretches of demethylated homogalacturonan which PelB can degrade. We also show that the sole pectin lyase has a high kcat value and rapidly depolymerizes methylated substrates. Three cytoplasmic GH105 hydrolases were screened for the ability to remove terminal unsaturated galacturonic acid residues from oligogalacturonide products produced by the action of extracellular lyases, and we found that two are active on demethylated oligogalacturonides. This work confirms that efficient homogalacturonan deconstruction in P. amylolyticus 27C65 does not require extracellular pectin methylesterase activity. Three of the extracellular lyases studied in this work are also thermostable, function well over a broad pH range, and have significant industrial potential. IMPORTANCE Pectin is an important structural polysaccharide found in most plant cell walls. In the environment, pectin degradation is part of the decomposition process that turns over dead plant material and is important to organisms that feed on plants. Industrially, pectinases are used to improve the quality of fruit juices and can also be used to process coffee cherries or tea leaves. These enzymes may also prove useful in reducing the environmental impact of paper and cotton manufacturing. This work is significant because it focuses on a Gram-positive bacterium that is evolutionarily distinct from other well-studied pectin-degrading organisms and differs from known systems in key ways. Most importantly, a simplified extracellular deconstruction process in this organism is able to break down pectins without first removing the methyl groups that inhibit other systems. Moreover, some of the enzymes described here have the potential to improve industrial processes that rely on pectin deconstruction.