Chen_2014_Biotechnol.Bioprocess.Eng_19_592

The resolutions of racemic diastereomeric mixtures of menthyl propionate was performed by Pseudomonas alcaligenes lipase (PaL) to produce (2S, 5R) L-menthol. Because of the inherently low diastereopreference of PaL, covalent docking and molecular dynamic (MD) simulations were used to investigate possible avenues of improvement. Rational site-directed mutagenesis of PaL revealed residues V180 and A272 to be the hotspots for diastereopreference. The double V180L/A272F mutant exhibited the highest degree of diastereopreference, as the diastereomeric ratio of (2S, 5R) L-menthol increased towards both (2R, 5S) L-neomenthol (dr1) and (2R, 5R) D-isoneomenthol (dr2) (diastereomeric ratios dr1 and dr2 increased to 4.65 and 2.13 times that of wild-type PaL). MD simulation analysis indicated that these mutations decrease the flexibility of the surrounding protein regions. The combination of increased steric exclusion and decreased flexibility results in less favorable binding of the non-target substrates, (2R, 5S) L-neomenthyl propionate and (2R, 5R) D-isoneomenthyl propionate, to the V180L/A272F mutant. These results confirmed and further improved our previously proposed model of the diastereomer recognition mechanism based on the combined effect of steric exclusion and regional flexibility.