Patent Application: US-6752606-A

Abstract:
we describe a screening method for the identification of glycosyltransferase polypeptides that regioselectively modify aglycones and the use of said glycosyltransferase polypeptides to modify aglycones .

Description:
throughout the description and claims of this specification , the words “ comprise ” and “ contain ” and variations of the words , for example “ comprising ” and “ comprises ”, means “ including but not limited to ”, and is not intended to ( and does not ) exclude other moieties , additives , components , integers or steps . throughout the description and claims of this specification , the singular encompasses the plural unless the context otherwise requires . in particular , where the indefinite article is used , the specification is to be understood as contemplating plurality as well as singularity , unless the context requires otherwise . features , integers , characteristics , compounds , chemical moieties or groups described in conjunction with a particular aspect , embodiment or example of the invention are to be understood to be applicable to any other aspect , embodiment or example described herein unless incompatible therewith . all reagents were of analytical grade . scopoletin , daidzein , esculetin , esculin , trans - resveratrol , dadzein - 7 - o - β - d - glucopyranoside ( daidzin ), glucose oxidase and almond β - glucosidase were obtained from sigma - aldrich ( u . k .). horseradish peroxidase and abts ™ were purchased from calbiochem ® ( u . k .). trans - resvertarol - 3 - o - β - d - glucopyranoside ( piceid ) was obtained from alexis ® biochemicals ( u . k .). milliq purified water was used for the preparation of all solutions . reverse - phase hplc ( rp - hplc ): rp - hplc ( agilent 1100 system with photodiode array detector , agilent , u . k .) analysis was carried out using a columbus 5 - μ c18 column ( 150 × 3 . 20 mm , phenomenex , u . k .). glucosides were separated from their respective aglycones using a linear gradient of acetonitrile / 0 . 1 % formic acid ( v / v ) in h 2 o : 10 - 45 % ( trans - resveratrol / glucosides ), 10 - 50 % ( daidzein / glucosides ) at 0 . 5 ml / min over 20 min and monitored at 280 nm and 250 nm . separation of scopoletin / scopolin and esculetin / esculin was carried out using the conditions described previously . [ 11 ] high performance anion exchange chromatography ( hpaec ): hpaec coupled with integrated amperometric detection ( iad ) ( dionex , u . k .) was used to detect d - glucose using a carbopac ™ pa10 column ( 2 × 250 mm , dionex ). seven different monosaccharides including l - fucose , l - rhamnose , d - galactose , l - arabinose , d - glucose , d - manose and d - xylose were used as references . the d - glucose was separated isocratically at a flow rate 0 . 35 ml / min with 24 mm naoh ( ph & gt ; 12 . 5 ) over 18 min . the column was then washed with a linear gradient of naoh from 24 mm to 200 mm over 5 min . the iad waveform was set following manufacturer &# 39 ; s recommendation . 1 h - nmr : glucosides , produced in a large - scale biocatalysis , were extracted from the culture media into n - butanol , purified using hplc , re - extracted with n - butanol , dried under vacuum and solubilized in cd 3 od for 1 h - nmr analysis ( bruker amx 500 - mhz 1 h - nmr spectrometer ). the data were processed and analyzed using bruker xwin - nmr software version 2 . 6 . esi - ms : negative ion electrospray ms and ms / ms data ( applied biosystems qstar pulsar i hybrid quadropole time - of - flight instrument ) were collected and processed using analyst qs ( applied biosystems ) software . the mass spectrometer was operated in negative ion mode with an ion spray voltage of − 2500 v at 300 ° c . and the nebulisor and turbo gases set at 70 units . parent ions were fragmented by collision induced dissociation ( cid ) and product ions analysed from 50 to 800 amu . the energy fragmentation experiments used collision energy settings of − 60 v . for each round of screening , a negative control containing the substrate and e . coli transformed with the vector pgex - 2t was included . in addition , e . coli expressing gt 71 c1 and incubated with scopoletin was used as a positive control . each stage in the screening method was validated by further controls described as follows . the lack of autohydrolysis during incubation was confirmed using esculin ( 12 ) ( esculetin - 6 - o - glucoside ) incubated in 50 mm mes buffer ( ph 7 . 0 ). incubation of esculin with e . coli transformed with pgex - 2t vector indicated the glucoside was not hydrolyzed in the presence of the bacterial culture . for these controls , samples were incubated for 44 h at 25 ° c . as in the standard experimental conditions , and analyzed by rp - hplc to confirm the lack of aglycone ( esculetin , 11 ) ( fig . s 1 ). the cdna library of 96 arabidopsis thaliana gts was subcloned into the multiple cloning site of the glutathione - s - transferase ( gst ) gene fusion vector pgex - 2t ( amersham biosciences , u . k .) as described previously [ 10 ] and transformed into the strain e . coli bl21 ( de3 ) for use in the screening method . stage 1 , biotransformation : single colonies of the gt library grown on lb - agar plates overnight were transferred to individual wells in a 96 - well bacterial culture plate containing 400 μl 2 × yt medium ( 16 g / l bacto tryptone , 10 g / l yeast extract , 5 g / l nacl ) and 50 μg / ml ampicillin . the plate was covered with an adhesive plate seal ( abgene , u . k .) and incubated at 37 ° c . ( 250 rpm ). the bacterial growth was monitored at 595 nm by a plate reader . after 4 h , the cultures had reached exponential phase . the plate was centrifuged ( 4000 g , 10 min ), the supernatants discarded and cell pellets were resuspended in isopropyl - d - thiogalactopyranoside ( 0 . 1 mm ), 2 -( n - morpholino ) ethanesulfonic acid ( 50 mm , ph 7 . 0 ), ampicillin ( 50 μg / ml ), l - arabinose ( 10 g / l ) and 500 □ m of aglycone to a total whole - cell reaction volume of 400 μl / well . the 96 - well plate was closed with a gas permeable adhesive plate seal , wrapped in alu foil for light protection and incubated at 25 ° c . ( 250 rpm ). after 44 h the cultures were centrifuged ( 4000 g , 15 min ) and the supernatants analyzed . stage 2 , cleavage : supernatants ( 100 μl ) were transferred to a microtiter plate , 1 μl of β - glucosidase ( 1 u ) was added and the plate incubated for 90 min at 37 ° c . stage 3 , detection : 50 μl of the reaction mix were transferred to a 96 - well filtration plate ( abgene , u . k . ), mixed with an equal volume of pvpp aqueous suspension ( 25 g / l ), shaken for 1 h at 25 ° c . before centrifugation ( 1000 g , 5 min ). to each filtrate , 50 mm 2 - morpholino - ethanesulfonic acid buffer ( mes ) ( ph 7 . 0 ), abts ™ ( 0 . 1 mm ), peroxidase ( 2 u ) and glucose oxidase ( 2 u ) were added to a final volume of 125 μl . the formation of the green dye was monitored at 405 nm at 30 min using a plate reader ( bio - tec instruments inc ., u . s . a ). the method , illustrated in scheme 1 , was established and optimized for a 96 - well plate format using the conversion of the hydroxycoumarin , scopoletin ( 1 ) to scopolin ( 2 ) as a model system . in vitro catalysis had already demonstrated that the substrate was recognized by multiple recombinant arabidopsis gts . [ 10 ] cells were cultured in standard media before transfer to d - glucose - minus medium in which l - arabinose was the carbon source . following induction , addition of substrate and incubation , cells were separated and the media from each well were collected and samples either analyzed directly using reverse - phase ( rp ) hplc or treated with □ β - glucosidase , filtered through polyvinyl - polypyrrolidone ( pvpp ) to remove remaining aglycone and levels of d - glucose detected in an enzymatic assay . fig1 illustrates the gt activities towards scopoletin and demonstrates a linear relationship between the amount of scopolin formed in each reaction and d - glucose detection . the whole - cell biocatalysis and screen identified 45 gts with activity towards scopoletin , confirming and extending the earlier data from in vitro catalysis . invariably , a negative in the d - glucose detection assay correlated with a negative result in the rp - hplc analysis . the utility of the method to discover novel biocatalysts was investigated using the isoflavone , daidzein ( 3 ) and the stilbene , trans - resveratrol ( 7 ). both compounds exist as glucosides , have attracted considerable pharmaceutical interest , [ 23 - 27 ] and chemical synthesis of their different glycosides has been attempted but resulted in poor yields and lack of regioselective discrimination . [ 28 - 30 ] daidzein , as well as other isoflavones , occurs naturally in legumes as the 7 - and 4 ′- β - o - glucosides ( 4 daidzin , 5 ). [ 31 ] trans - resveratrol ( 7 ), a naturally occurring hydroxystilbene , is found as glucosides [ 32 ] and methoxides . [ 33 ] piceid ( 3 - β - o - glucoside ) ( 8 ) and resveratroloside ( 4 ′- β - o - glucoside ) ( 9 ) are the most abundant conjugates . bioactivity of these compounds has been reported in relation to cancer prevention , [ 34 - 36 ] coronary heart disease , [ 37 ; 38 ] antioxidant activity [ 39 ; 40 ] and estrogenic activity . [ 41 ; 42 ] since neither daidzein nor trans - resveratrol is reported to occur in arabidopsis , they represent non - natural substrates for the gt screen . the utility of the screening method and regioselective biocatalysis by the gts are illustrated in fig2 and 3 . thirteen gts recognized daidzein and twenty - five gts were identified that glycosylated trans - resveratrol . as previously described for scopoletin , rp - hplc quantification of the glucosides formed in the biocatalysis revealed a linear correlation to d - glucose detection for both substrates ( fig . s 5 , supporting information ). the mono - and di - glucosides of daidzein ( 4 - 6 ) and trans - resveratrol ( 8 - 10 ), eluting earlier than the two aglycones under the rp - hplc conditions used ( fig2 b and 3 b ), were identified using external standards when available , or by electrospray liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry ( lc - ms ). 1 h - nmr analysis was used to confirm the structure of the monoglucosides ( table 1 , seq id no : 1 - 107 ). from the thirteen gts that recognized daidzein , three ( gts 84a1 , 73b2 and 73b1 ) were found to be 100 % regioselective for the 7 - oh ; the remaining enzymes glycosylated the 4 ′- oh and 7 - oh positions to varying degrees , and one gt , 73c4 , produced the diglucoside in addition to the monoglucosides ( fig2 b ). similarly , regioselective glycosylation of trans - resveratrol was observed . from the twenty - five enzymes that recognized the substrate , five gts were specific for the 3 - oh position ( gts 71 d1 , 71c2 , 88a1 , 72d1 and 71c4 ) and one gt 74b1 was specific for the 4 ′- oh position ( fig3 b ). only trace levels of a diglucoside were observed under the reaction conditions used . as before , for both daidzein and trans - resveratrol biocatalysis , the d - glucose based detection system did not miss any positive enzyme activities ; however in these assays , two false positives in screens of each compound were observed , where an intense absorption was not associated with any product formation . in conclusion , we have successfully developed a generic screen to determine the activity of recombinant gt libraries towards aromatic compounds in whole - cell biocatalysis . we have demonstrated that the method provides the means to rapidly identify gts of high utility that can be further developed for use in biotransformations or chemo - enzymatic synthesis of small molecule glycosides . the regio - and enantio - selectivity of gt biocatalysts offers a useful complement to classical chemical approaches . 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