(Below N is a link to NCBI taxonomic web page and E link to ESTHER at designed phylum.) > unclassified sequences: NE > environmental samples: NE > prokaryotic environmental samples: NE > uncultured prokaryote: NE
LegendThis sequence has been compared to family alignement (MSA) red => minority aminoacid blue => majority aminoacid color intensity => conservation rate title => sequence position(MSA position)aminoacid rate Catalytic site Catalytic site in the MSA METIFLENEGQKIFGIIHNVGLNTPVVIMFHGFTGNHIESRFIFARLSRA LEKAGISSIRFDFRGSGDSEGTFEEMTLSSEMSDAKAIANYARDRFKGHI GILGLSMGGTIALLTAPMLKPNALCLWAPAAKNREVFTNGGMPQQIEKGK RLDVGGLEISNAFIKEVLTMNAFEKAKYYSNPVLILHGTSDSTVPFEHSQ DLAKEFDHVTLVPVEGADHVFTSVQWSSFVIEKTVNFFTENLL
Esterases receive special attention because their wide distribution in biological systems and environments and their importance for physiology and chemical synthesis. The prediction of esterases substrate promiscuity level from sequence data and the molecular reasons why certain such enzymes are more promiscuous than others, remain to be elucidated. This limits the surveillance of the sequence space for esterases potentially leading to new versatile biocatalysts and new insights into their role in cellular function. Here we performed an extensive analysis of the substrate spectra of 145 phylogenetically and environmentally diverse microbial esterases, when tested with 96 diverse esters. We determined the primary factors shaping their substrate range by analyzing substrate range patterns in combination with structural analysis and protein-ligand simulations. We found a structural parameter that helps ranking (classifying) promiscuity level of esterases from sequence data at 94% accuracy. This parameter, the active site effective volume, exemplifies the topology of the catalytic environment by measuring the active site cavity volume corrected by the relative solvent accessible surface area (SASA) of the catalytic triad. Sequences encoding esterases with active site effective volumes (cavity volume/SASA) above a threshold show greater substrate spectra, which can be further extended in combination with phylogenetic data. This measure provides also a valuable tool for interrogating substrates capable of being converted. This measure, found to be transferred to phosphatases of the haloalkanoic acid dehalogenase superfamily and possibly other enzymatic systems, represents a powerful tool for low-cost bioprospecting for esterases with broad substrate ranges, in large scale sequence datasets.
uncultured prokaryote metagenome-derived esterase Est8 (different from Est8 6Y9K)