Muller_2020_Angew.Chem.Int.Ed.Engl_59_11607

Certain hydrolases preferentially catalyze acyl transfer over hydrolysis in an aqueous environment. However, molecular and structural reasons for this phenomenon are still unclear. Here we provide evidence that acyltransferase activity in esterases highly correlates with the hydrophobicity of the substrate-binding pocket. A hydrophobicity scoring system developed in this work allows accurate prediction of promiscuous acyltransferase activity solely from the amino acid sequence of the cap domain. This concept was experimentally verified by systematic investigation of several homologous esterases, leading to the discovery of five novel promiscuous acyltransferases. We also developed a simple, yet versatile, colorimetric assay for rapid characterization of novel acyltransferases. This study demonstrates that promiscuous acyltransferase activity is not as rare as previously thought and provides access to a vast number of novel acyltransferases with diverse substrate specificities and potential applications.