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Characterization of new recombinant 3-ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenases for the biotransformation of steroids

  • Biotechnologically relevant enzymes and proteins
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Abstract

3-Ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenases (KstDs [EC 1.3.99.4]) catalyze the Δ1-dehydrogenation of steroids and are a class of important enzymes for steroid biotransformations. In this study, we cloned 12 putative KstD-encoding (kstd) genes from both fungal and Gram-positive microorganisms and attempted to overproduce the recombinant proteins in E. coli BL21(DE3). Five successful recombinant enzymes catalyzed the Δ1-desaturation of a variety of steroidal compounds such as 4-androstene-3,17-dione (AD), 9α-hydroxy-4-androstene-3,17-dione (9-OH-AD), hydrocortisone, cortisone, and cortexolone. However, the substrate specificity and catalytic efficiency of the enzymes differ depending on their sources. The purified KstD from Mycobacterium smegmatis mc2155 (MsKstD1) displayed high catalytic efficiency toward hydrocortisone, progesterone, and 9-OH-AD, where it had the highest affinity (K m 36.9 ± 4.6 μM) toward 9-OH-AD. On the other hand, the KstD from Rhodococcus erythropolis WY 1406 (ReKstD) exhibited high catalytic efficiency toward androst-4,9(11)-diene-3,17-dione (Diene), 21-acetoxy-pregna-4,9(11),16-triene-3,20-dione (Triene), and cortexolone, where in all three cases the K m values (12.3 to 17.8 μM) were 2.5–4-fold lower than that toward hydrocortisone (46.3 μM). For both enzymes, AD was a good substrate although ReKstD had a 3-fold higher affinity than MsKstD1. Reaction conditions were optimized for the biotransformation of AD or hydrocortisone in terms of pH, temperature, and effects of hydrogen peroxide, solvent, and electron acceptor. For the biotransformation of hydrocortisone with 20 g/L wet resting E. coli cells harboring MsKstD1 enzyme, the yield of prednisolone was about 90% within 3 h at the substrate concentration of 6 g/L, demonstrating the application potential of the newly cloned KstDs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the STS Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-SW-STS-164) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863”Program) of China (Nos. 02011AA02A211). The authors thank the sponsorship from Zhejiang Xianju Junye Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang, China), and greatly appreciate Professor Peter Lau at the same institute for his help and constructive suggestions on this manuscript.

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  1. Xiaojun Wang and Jinhui Feng contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering Laboratory for Industrial Enzymes and Tianjin Engineering Research Center of Biocatalytic Technology, Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, 300308, China

    Xiaojun Wang, Jinhui Feng, Dalong Zhang, Qiaqing Wu, Dunming Zhu & Yanhe Ma

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xiaojun Wang

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  1. Xiaojun Wang
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  2. Jinhui Feng
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  3. Dalong Zhang
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Correspondence to Qiaqing Wu or Dunming Zhu.

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Wang, X., Feng, J., Zhang, D. et al. Characterization of new recombinant 3-ketosteroid-Δ1-dehydrogenases for the biotransformation of steroids. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 6049–6060 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8378-2

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