Improvement in activity of cellulase Cel12A of Thermotoga neapolitana by error prone PCR.

• Mutant C6 of Cel12A obtained after four rounds of ep PCR showed nearly 5-fold increase in activity. • The mutation E57 K in C6 produced conformational changes promoting binding affinity with the ligand and thus enhancing activity. • Analysis of the hydrolytic products showed that Cel12A should be a cellobiohydrolase instead of an endoglucanase as previously reported. Using multi-step error prone PCR (ep-PCR) of the gene encoding endoglucanase Cel12A (27 kDa) from Thermotoga neapolitana, mutants were obtained with many fold increase in the enzyme activity. The best mutant (C6, N47S/E57 K/ V88A/S157 P/K165 H) obtained after four rounds of ep-PCR showed 2.7−, 5− and 4.8−fold increase in activity against CMC, RAC and Avicel, respectively, compared with the wild type enzyme. The other characteristics of the mutated enzyme with respect to stability, optimum working pH and temperature were comparable to the wild type enzyme.C6 mutant showed higher binding efficiency towards the rice straw (∼50%) than the wild type (∼41%). The structural information obtained from the protein docking of the wild type Cel12A and its mutant showed that E57 K improved the binding affinity between enzyme and ligand by producing conformational changes in the catalytic cavity. The other mutations can facilitate the enzyme-substrate binding interactions to enhance catalytic activity although they are not directly involved in catalysis. The wild type and mutant enzyme produce cellobiose as the major products for both soluble and insoluble substrates, suggesting that this enzyme should be a cellobiohydrolase instead of endoglucanase as previously reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]