D-amino acid oxidase (DAAO) and catalase (CAT) have been genetically modified by fusing them to an elastin-like polypeptide (ELP). ELP-DAAO and ELP-CAT have been separately immobilized on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs). It has been found that the secondary structures of the enzymes have been preserved. ELP-DAAO catalyzed the oxidative deamination of D-alanine, and H2O2 was evolved contin...

Metabolic control analysis (MCA) allows one to formalize important aspects of information processing in living cells. For example, information processing via multi-level enzyme cascades can be quantified in terms of the response coefficient of a cellular target to a signal. In many situations, control and response coefficients cannot be determined exactly for all enzymes involved, owing to diff...

Enzymes can catalyze various reactions with high selectivity and are involved in many important biological processes. However, the general instability of enzymes against high temperature often limits their application. To address this, we synthesized a trehalose-based hydrogel in two steps from commercial starting materials with minimal purification procedures. Mono- and multi-functional trehal...

Single enzyme molecules display inevitable, stochastic fluctuations in their catalytic activity. In metabolism, for instance, the stochastic activity of individual enzymes is averaged out due to their high copy numbers per single cell. However, many processes inside cells rely on single enzyme activity, such as transcription, replication, translation, and histone modifications. Here we introduc...

In this paper, the saccharification process of okara fiber with pectinase, xylanase and cellulase was investigated as a preliminary attempt to effectively utilize okara fiber. The solubilization of okara fiber was raised in proportion to the number of enzymes used; that is, by a single enzyme, two enzymes and three enzymes, in that order. The saccharification of okara fiber was much more comple...

In this study we report the use of functionalized carbon-based nanomaterials, such as amine-functionalized graphene oxide (GO) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs), as effective immobilization supports for various lipases and esterases of industrial interest. Structural and biochemical characterization have revealed that the curvature of the nanomaterial affect the immobilization yield, the...

Human purine de novo synthesis pathway contains several multi-functional enzymes, one of which, tri-functional GART, contains three enzymatic activities in a single polypeptide chain. We have solved structures of two domains bearing separate catalytic functions: glycinamide ribonucleotide synthetase and aminoimidazole ribonucleotide synthetase. Structures are compared with those of homologous e...

Recent analyses of genome sequences belonging to cellulolytic bacteria have revealed many genes potentially coding for cellulosic biomass degradation enzymes. Annotation of these genes however, is based on few biochemically characterised examples. Here we present a simple strategy based on BioBricks for the rapid screening of candidate genes expressed in Escherichia coli. As proof of principle ...

Posttranslational modification of proteins by the small molecule ubiquitin is a key regulatory event, and the enzymes catalyzing these modifications have been the focus of many studies. Deubiquitinating enzymes, which mediate the removal and processing of ubiquitin, may be functionally as important but are less well understood. Here, we present an inventory of the deubiquitinating enzymes encod...

Baculovirus expression vectors are widely used for expressing heterologous proteins in cultured insect cells. Recent advances include further development of the system for production of multi-subunit protein complexes, co-expression of protein-modifying enzymes to improve heterologous protein production, and additional applications of baculovirus display technology. The application of modified ...