• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제14권1호
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• pp.153-157
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• 2004

Tyrosine phenol-lyase (TPL) is a useful enzyme for the synthesis of pharmaceutical aromatic amino acids. In the current study, sequential DNA shuffling and screening were used to enhance the stability of TPL. Twenty-thousand mutants were screened, and several improved variants were isolated. One variant named A13V, in which the $13^{th}$ amino acid alanine was substituted by valine, exhibited a higher temperature and denaturant stability than the wild-type TPL. The purified mutant TPL, A13V, retained about 60% of its activity at $76^\circ{C}$, whereas the activity of the wild-type TPL decreased to less than 20% at the same temperature. Plus, A13V exhibited about 50% activity with 3 M urea, while the wild-type TPL lost almost all its catalytic activity, indicating an increased denaturant tolerance in the mutant A13V. It is speculated that the substitution of Val for the Ala in the $\beta$-strand of the N-terminal arm was responsible for the heightened stabilization, and that the current results will contribute to further research on the structural stability of TPL.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제25권5호
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• pp.620-628
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• 2015

A fungal strain, R9, was isolated from the South Atlantic sediment sample and identified as Aspergillus fumigatus. An antifungal protein, AfAFP_R9, was purified from the culture supernatant of Aspergillus fumigatus R9. AfAFP_R9 was identified to be restrictocin, which is a member of the ribosome-inactivating proteins (RIPs), by MALDI-TOF-TOF-MS. AfAFP_R9 displayed antifungal activity against plant pathogenic Fusarium oxysporum, Alternaria longipes, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Paecilomyces variotii, and Trichoderma viride at minimum inhibitory concentrations of 0.6, 0.6, 1.2, 1.2, and 2.4 μg/disc, respectively. Moreover, AfAFP_R9 exhibited a certain extent of thermostability, and metal ion and denaturant tolerance. The iodoacetamide assay showed that the disulfide bridge in AfAFP_R9 was indispensable for its antifungal action. The cDNA encoding for AfAFP_R9 was cloned from A. fumigatus R9 by RT-PCR and heterologously expressed in E. coli. The recombinant AfAFP_R9 protein exhibited obvious antifungal activity against C. gloeosporioides, T. viride, and A. longipes. These results reveal the antifungal properties of a RIP member (AfAFP_R9) from marine-derived Aspergillus fumigatus and indicated its potential application in controlling plant pathogenic fungi.