More than 150 glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins (GPI-APs) are expressed in mammalian cells and involved in various physiological processes such as immune recognition, cell communication and signal transduction. GPI is transferred to proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). When GPI-anchoring is impaired, precursor proteins are thought to be degraded through ER-associated degradation (ERAD). However, the mechanism of their degradation in ERAD remains unclear. To investigate the impact of ERAD pathways on degradation of GPI precursor proteins, we used series of knockout (KO) human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells defective in PIGS gene, which encodes a GPI transamidase complex subunit, combined with KO in HRD1 (PIGS-HRD1-KO) or GP78 (PIGSGP78-KO), which encodes the E3 ubiquitin ligases for the ERAD pathways. We compared the stability of 16 GPI precursor proteins in the ERAD-deficient cells with the parental PIGS-KO cells. Western blotting data showed that the GPI precursor proteins were stabilized in either PIGS-HRD1-KO (I

D-allulose-3-epimerase (DPEase) is the key enzyme for isomerization of D-fructose to D-allulose. In order to improve its thermal stability, short amphiphilic peptides (SAP) were fused to the N-terminal of DPEase. SDS-PAGE analysis showed that the heterologously expressed DPEase folded correctly in Bacillus subtilis, and the protein size was 33 kDa. After incubation at 40 °C for 48 h, the residual enzyme activity of SAP1-DSDPEase was 58%. To make the recombinant B. subtilis strain reusable, cells were immobilized with a composite carrier of sodium alginate (SA) and titanium dioxide (TiO2). The results showed that 2% SA, 2% CaCl2, 0.03% glutaraldehyde solution and a ratio of TiO2 to SA of 1:4 were optimal for immobilization. Under these conditions, up to 82% of the activity of immobilized cells could be retained. Compared with free cells, the optimal reaction temperature of immobilized cells remained unchanged at 80 °C but the thermal stability improved. After 10 consecutive cycles, the mechanical strength remained unchanged, while 58% of the enzyme activity could be retained, with a conversion rate of 28.8% achieved. This study demonstrated a simple approach for using SAPs to improve the thermal stability of recombinant enzymes. Moreover, addition of TiO2 into SA during immobilization was demonstrated to increase the mechanical strength and reduce cell leakage.
Bacillus subtilis/metabolism* ; Carbohydrate Epimerases/genetics* ; Enzyme Stability ; Enzymes, Immobilized/metabolism* ; Fructose ; Hydrogen-Ion Concentration ; Racemases and Epimerases ; Temperature