Functional dissection of the N-terminal sequence of Clostridium sp. G0005 glucoamylase: identification of components critical for folding the catalytic domain and for constructing the active site structure.

Clostridium sp. G0005 glucoamylase (CGA) is composed of a β-sandwich domain (BD), a linker, and a catalytic domain (CD). In the present study, CGA was expressed in Escherichia coli as inclusion bodies when the N-terminal region (39 amino acid residues) of the BD was truncated. To further elucidate the role of the N-terminal region of the BD, we constructed N-terminally truncated proteins (Δ19, Δ24, Δ29, and Δ34) and assessed their solubility and activity. Although all evaluated proteins were soluble, their hydrolytic activities toward maltotriose as a substrate varied: Δ19 and Δ24 were almost as active as CGA, but the activity of Δ29 was substantially lower, and Δ34 exhibited little hydrolytic activity. Subsequent truncation analysis of the N-terminal region sequence between residues 25 and 28 revealed that truncation of less than 26 residues did not affect CGA activity, whereas truncation of 26 or more residues resulted in a substantial loss of activity. Based on further site-directed mutagenesis and N-terminal sequence analysis, we concluded that the 26XaaXaaTrp28 sequence of CGA is important in exhibiting CGA activity. These results suggest that the N-terminal region of the BD in bacterial GAs may function not only in folding the protein into the correct structure but also in constructing a competent active site for catalyzing the hydrolytic reaction.