Engineering Improves Enzymatic Synthesis of L-Tryptophan by Tryptophan Synthase from Escherichia coli

To improve the thermostability of tryptophan synthase, the molecular modification of tryptophan synthase was carried out by rational molecular engineering. First, B-FITTER software was used to analyze the temperature factor (B-factor) of each amino acid residue in the crystal structure of tryptophan synthase. A key amino acid residue, G395, which adversely affected the thermal stability of the enzyme, was identified, and then, a mutant library was constructed by site-specific saturation mutation. A mutant (G395S) enzyme with significantly improved thermal stability was screened from the saturated mutant library. Error-prone PCR was used to conduct a directed evolution of the mutant enzyme (G395S). Compared with the parent, the mutant enzyme (G395S /A191T) had a K_m of 0.21 mM and a catalytic efficiency k_cat/K_m of 5.38 mM^-1∙s^-1, which was 4.8 times higher than that of the wild-type strain. The conditions for L-tryptophan synthesis by the mutated enzyme were a L-serine concentration of 50 mmol/L, a reaction temperature of 40 °C, pH of 8, a reaction time of 12 h, and an L-tryptophan yield of 81%. The thermal stability of the enzyme can be improved by using an appropriate rational design strategy to modify the correct site. The catalytic activity of tryptophan synthase was increased by directed evolution.