10.1002/adsc.201900132
Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis
ampicillin (1 L) was inoculated with 5 mL of a freshly
grown preculture. The bacteria were grown at 37 °C,
until the optical density measured at 600 nm reached
approximately 0.6. Then the cultures were cooled to
20 °C, 0.5 mM IPTG was added, and growth continued
at 20 °C. After overnight growth, cells were harvested
using centrifugation for 10 min at 8000 rpm. A washing
step was carried out using approximately 125 mL of
washing buffer. Cells were harvested by centrifugation
(10 min at 8000 rpm). Cell pellets were resuspended in
40 mL of purification buffer A and then frozen at −80
°C. Cell disruption was achieved by sonication (4 × 8
min, 0.3 cycle, 85 amplitude). The crude extract was
centrifuged (20−60 min at 14000 rpm) to remove the cell
debris. The cell-free extracts were filtered through a
Rotilabo-Spritzenfilter (0.45 μm) to remove remaining
cell debris. Samples were purified using metal affinity
chromatography with a small adaptation of stepwise
increased imidazole concentration for washing (10 mL
of 4%, 10 mL of 6%, and 15 mL of 10%). Finally,
imidazole was removed by a double-dialysis step in 50
mM phosphate buffer, pH 7.5. Protein samples were
filtered through a sterile 0.22 μm Rotilabo-Spritzenfilter
for storage. The concentration of the prepared enzyme
solutions was determined in triplicate using Bradford
reagent, and the purity was checked by SDS-PAGE.
The formation of the iodinated analogue was
observed only in the reaction of DbjA H280F with
2,3-dichloropropene (Figure 2A). To identify the
transhalogenated product, we applied GC-MS
(Figure 2B) followed by a fragmentation analysis
and an analysis of isotopic clusters with the
assistance of the Mass Frontier 1.0 software
(HighChem, Slovak Republic). The heaviest ion at
the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) 202 is corresponding
to the molecular weight of 3-iodo-2-chloropropene
(C3H4ICl). The isotopic cluster at m/z 202-204 with
an abundance of 100/31 (M/(M+2)) matches the
isotopic ratio 100/32 predicted by Mass Frontier for
the presence of one chlorine and one iodine atom in
the molecule. The m/z 127 represents iodine with
the characteristic monoisotopic abundance. The
m/z 75 (C3H4Cl) represents the rest of the molecule
after the cleavage of iodine. The m/z 49 represents
the fragment CH2Cl produced from m/z 75 by the
cleavage of C2H2. Both clusters m/z 75-77 and m/z
49-51 showed an isotopic abundance characteristic
for the presence of one chlorine in the molecule.
Additionally, the MS spectrum of the
transhalogenated product was compared to an MS
spectrum obtained for a commercially synthesized
chemical standard of 3-iodo-2-chloropropene with
98% match (CF Plus Chemicals, Czech Republic).
Finally, the conversion of 2,3-dichloropropene to
3-iodo-2-chloropropene was tested with a set of
selected HLDs carrying the mutation in the
catalytic histidine (DbjA H280F, LinB H272F,
DhlA H289F, DhaA H272F and DhaA31
H272F).[9] All the tested dehalogenases carrying the
mutation in the catalytic histidine were able to
Conversion of 1-bromobutane by DbeA_wt,
DbjA_wt and DbjA_H280F in presence of chloride.
Dehalogenation reactions were performed at 37°C in
25 ml Reacti Flasks closed by Mininert Valves. The
reaction mixtures were prepared by mixing of 15 ml of
100 mM glycine buffer containing 0.8 M NaCl (pH 8.6)
and 1-bromobutane as a substrate to a final concentration
of 9.3 mM. The reactions were initiated by addition of
300 μl enzyme in a concentration of 0.78 mg/ml
(DbeA_wt), 0.69 mg/ml (DbjA), or 1.10 mg/ml (DbjA
H280F). Buffer (300 μl) instead of enzyme was added to
the reaction mixture as a control. The reactions were
monitored by taking 1 ml samples at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25,
30, 40, 50 and 60 minutes from the reaction mixtures.
The reaction was stopped by addition of 0.5 ml
diethylether containing 1,2-dichloroethane as an internal
standard to the reaction mixture. After extraction,
samples were analysed using a gas chromatograph
(Agilent 7890, USA) equipped with the capillary column
DB-FFAP (30m x 0.25mm x 0.25μm, Phenomenex) and
connected with a mass spectrometer (Agilent 5975C,
USA). The 5 μl of sample were injected into a Split-
Splitless inlet at 250 °C, with split ratio of 1:20. The
temperature programme was isothermal at 40 °C for
1 min, followed by an increase to 140 °C at 20 °C/min.
The flow of carrier gas (He) was 1.2 ml/min. The MS
was operated at SCAN mode (30 to 240 amu). The
temperatures of the ion source and GC-MS interface
were 230 °C and 250° C, respectively.
catalyse
the
transhalogenation
of
2,3-
dichloropropene in the presence of iodides, even
though the overall reactions were slow. The most
efficient formation of 3-iodo-2-chloropropene was
observed with the engineered variants of DbjA and
DhaA, followed by LinB and DhaA31. The lowest
activity was shown with the DhlA variant (Figure
2C), very likely due to its closed active site cavity.
This view is supported by the difference in the rates
of DhaA and DhaA31, the latter mutant possessing
a more occluded active site cavity.[10]
Stopped-flow fluorescence analysis. The binding
of halides to the free DbjA H280F or its enzyme-alkyl
intermediates was performed with the stopped-flow
instrument SFM-300 (BioLogic, France) combined with
MPS-70. Fluorescence emission from tryptophan
residues was observed through a 320 nm cut-off filter
upon excitation at 295 nm. The reactions were
performed at 37°C in a glycine buffer pH 8.6. The
enzyme-alkyl intermediate was prepared by mixing the
enzyme with a solution of 1 mM 1-chlorbutane or 5 mM
1,2-dibromoethane in 50 mM glycine buffer pH 8.6 and
a subsequent incubation at room temperature for 10
minutes. Substrate that was not converted by the enzyme
was removed by evaporation. Final concentration of the
enzyme in the solution was 0.25 mg/ml. The chloride
and bromide data were fitted to Stern-Volmer quenching
equation:
In summary, the collected data provides a
direct experimental evidence for the reversibility of
the first chemical step (SN2) of the catalytic
mechanism of HLDs. These observations could
pave the way for a potential new chemistry and
reactions to synthetically more useful products
catalysed by HLDs by strategically stopping the
mechanistic cycle at the alkyl-enzyme intermediate.
However, more research and further optimization
would be needed to make the enzymatic
transhalogenation more efficient.
Experimental Section
1
퐹
Construction of DbjA H280F and DhlA H289F,
protein expression and purification. The recombinant
genes dbjA H280F and dhlA H289F were obtained by
site-directed mutagenisis. Expression of the HLDs was
achieved using E. coli BL21(DE3) containing the
constructed expression vectors. LB medium with
=
⁄
1 + 퐾푄. [푋−]
퐹0
where, F/F0 is the relative fluorescence, and KQ is the
quenching constant (which is the apparent association
equilibrium constant of the non-specific quenching
3
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