Enhancing 2-O-α-D-glucopyranosyl-l-ascorbic acid synthesis by weakening the acceptor specificity of CGTase toward glucose and maltose

2-O-a-D-glucopyranosyl-l-ascorbic acid (AA-2G) is a stable derivative of l-ascorbic acid (l-AA), which has been widely used in food and cosmetics industries. Sugar molecules, such as glucose and maltose produced by cyclodextrin glycosyltransferase (CGTase) during AA-2G synthesis may compete with l-AA as the acceptors, resulting in low AA-2G yield. Multiple sequence alignment combined with structural simulation analysis indicated that residues at positions 191 and 255 of CGTase may be responsible for the difference in substrate specificity. To investigate the effect of these two residues on the acceptor preference and the AA-2G yield, five single mutants Bs F191Y, Bs F255Y, Bc Y195F, Pm Y195F and Pm Y260F of three CGTases from Bacillus stearothermophilus NO2 (Bs), Bacillus circulans 251 (Bc) and Paenibacillus macerans (Pm) were designed for AA-2G synthesis. Under optimal conditions, the AA-2G yields of the mutants Bs F191Y and Bs F255Y AA-2G were 34.3% and 7.9% lower than that of Bs CGTase, respectively. The AA-2G yields of mutant Bc Y195F, Pm Y195F and Pm Y260F were 45.8%, 36.9% and 12.6% higher than those of wild-type CGTases, respectively. Kinetic studies revealed that the residues at positions 191 and 255 of the three CGTases were F, which decreased glucose and maltose specificity and increased l-AA specificity. This study not only proposes for the first time that the AA-2G yield can be improved by weakening the acceptor specificity of CGTase toward sugar byproducts, but also provides new insight on the modification of CGTase that catalyze the double-substrate transglycosylation reaction.

Automated summary

The study found that the mutations in two specific sites of CGTase can affect its substrate specificity and consequently the yield of AA-2G. Through the synthesis experiment of mutated variants of three CGTase enzymes, it was found that the yield of AA-2G decreased in two variants, while increased in the other three variants. This study proposes for the first time a method to improve AA-2G yield by weakening the selectivity of CGTase towards sugar byproducts, thus providing new insights into the modification of double-substrate transglycosylation enzymes.