Two bifunctional enzymes from the marine protist Thraustochytrium roseum: biochemical characterization of wax ester synthase/acyl-CoA: diacylglycerol acyltransferase activity catalyzing wax ester and triacylglycerol synthesis

Background: Triacylglycerols (TAGs) and wax esters (WEs) are important neutral lipids which serve as energy reservoir in some plants and microorganisms. In recent years, these biologically produced neutral lipids have been regarded as potential alternative energy sources for biofuel production because of the increased interest on developing renewable and environmentally benign alternatives for fossil fuels. In bacteria, the final step in TAG and WE biosynthetic pathway is catalyzed by wax ester synthase/acyl coenzyme A (acyl-CoA): diacylglycerol acyltransferase (WS/DGAT). This bifunctional WS/DGAT enzyme is also a key enzyme in biotechnological production of liquid WE via engineering of plants and microorganisms. To date, knowledge about this class of biologically and biotechnologically important enzymes is mainly from biochemical characterization of WS/DGATs from Arabidopsis, jojoba and some bacteria that can synthesize both TAGs and WEs intracellularly, whereas little is known about WS/DGATs from eukaryotic microorganisms. Results: Here, we report the identification and characterization of two bifunctional WS/DGAT enzymes (designated TrWSD4 and TrWSD5) from the marine protist Thraustochytrium roseum. Both TrWSD4 and TrWSD5 comprise a WS-like acyl-CoA acyltransferase domain and the recombinant proteins purified from Escherichia coli Rosetta (DE3) have substantial WS and lower DGAT activity. They exhibit WS activity towards various-chain-length saturated and polyunsaturated acyl-CoAs and fatty alcohols ranging from C-10 to C-18. TrWSD4 displays WS activity with the lowest K-m value of 0.14 mu M and the highest k(cat)/K-m value of 1.46 x 10(5) M-1 s(-1) for lauroyl-CoA (C-12:0) in the presence of 100 mu M hexadecanol, while TrWSD5 exhibits WS activity with the lowest Km value of 0.96 mu M and the highest k(cat)/K-m value of 9.83 x 10(4) M-1 s(-1) for decanoyl-CoA (C-10:0) under the same reaction condition. Both WS/DGAT enzymes have the highest WS activity at 37 and 47 C-circle, and WS activity was greatly decreased when temperature exceeds 47 C-circle. TrWSD4 and TrWSD5 are insensitive to ionic strength and reduced WS activity was observed when salt concentration exceeded 800 mM. The potential of T. roseum WS/DGATs to establish novel process for biotechnological production of WEs was demonstrated by heterologous expression in recombinant yeast. Expression of either TrWSD4 or TrWSD5 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae quadruple mutant H1246, which is devoid of storage lipids, resulted in the accumulation of WEs, but not any detectable TAGs, indicating a predominant WS activity in yeast. Conclusions: This study demonstrates both in vitro WS and DGAT activity of two T. roseum WS/DGATs, which were characterized as unspecific acyltransferases accepting a broad range of acyl-CoAs and fatty alcohols as substrates for WS activity but displaying substrate preference for medium-chain acyl-CoAs. In vivo characterization shows that these two WS/DGATs predominantly function as wax synthase and presents the feasibility for production of WEs by heterologous hosts.