Characterization of a novel asparaginase from soil metagenomic libraries generated from forest soil.

Arjun, Jaya Kumar; Aneesh, Balakrishna Pillai; Kavitha, Thulasi; Harikrishnan, Kumarapillai

Objectives: To screen soil metagenomic libraries for novel enzymes with enhanced activities.Results: To screen soil metagenomic libraries for novel enzymes with enhanced activities. A novel l-asparaginase was identified from forest soil metagenome and its characteristics were studied. The purified protein had a specific activity of 696 IU mg−1 and optimum activity at pH 7 and 35 °C. Enhanced enzyme activities were observed in the presence of Mg2 , Ca2 and K . The Km value, 2 mM, and enzyme specificity constant 7.7 mM−1s−1 indicated that the recombinant enzyme has good substrate affinity to l-asparagine compared with commercially-available Escherichia coli asparaginase. The IC50 value of 0.78 µg ml−1 (0.47 IU ml−1) was observed with HL60 cell line and 0.39 µg ml−1(0.23 IU ml−1) with MOLT-3 and MOLT-4 cell lines, which is better than that of commercially-available drugs.Conclusion: The soil metagenome derived l-asparaginase with enhanced activities could be a potential candidate to develop as a drug in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) therapy.

ASPARAGINASE; FOREST soils; LYMPHOBLASTIC leukemia; RECOMBINANT antibodies; ESCHERICHIA coli

Biotechnology Letters, 2018, Vol 40, Issue 2, p343

0141-5492

Academic Journal

10.1007/s10529-017-2470-7