Development of Novel Sugar Isomerases by Optimization of Active Sites in Phosphosugar Isomerases for Monosaccharides

Phosphosugar isomerases can catalyze the isomerization of not only phosphosugar but also of monosaccharides, suggesting that the phosphosugar isomerases can be used as sugar isomerases that do not exist in nature. Determination of active-site residues of phosphosugar isomerases, including ribose-5-phosphate isomerase from Clostridium difficile (CDRPI), mannose-6-phosphate isomerase from Bacillus subtilis (BSMPI), and glucose-6-phosphate isomerase from Pyrococcus furiosus (PFGPI), was accomplished by docking of monosaccharides onto the structure models of the isomerases. The determinant residues, including Arg133 of CDRPI, Arg192 of BSMPI, and Thr85 of PFGPI, were subjected to alanine substitutions and found to act as phosphate-binding sites. R133D of CDRPI, R192 of BSMPI, and T85Q of PFGPI displayed the highest catalytic efficiencies for monosaccharides at each position. These residues exhibited 1.8-, 3.5-, and 4.9-fold higher catalytic efficiencies, respectively, for the monosaccharides than the wild-type enzyme. However, the activities of these 3 variant enzymes for phosphosugars as the original substrates disappeared. Thus, R133D of CDRPI, R192 of BSMPI, and T85Q of PFGPI are no longer phosphosugar isomerases; instead, they are changed to a d-ribose isomerase, an l-ribose isomerase, and an l-talose isomerase, respectively. In this study, we used substrate-tailored optimization to develop novel sugar isomerases which are not found in nature based on phosphosugar isomerases.