Kinetic modeling of phosphorylase-catalyzed iterative β-1,4-glycosylation for degree of polymerization-controlled synthesis of soluble cello-oligosaccharides.

backgroundCellodextrin phosphorylase (CdP; EC 2.4.1.49) catalyzes the iterative β-1,4-glycosylation of cellobiose using α-D-glucose 1-phosphate as the donor substrate. Cello-oligosaccharides (COS) with a degree of polymerization (DP) of up to 6 are soluble while those of larger DP self-assemble into solid cellulose material. The soluble COS have attracted considerable attention for their use as dietary fibers that offer a selective prebiotic function. An efficient synthesis of soluble COS requires good control over the DP of the products formed. A mathematical model of the iterative enzymatic glycosylation would be important to facilitate target-oriented process development.

resultsA detailed time-course analysis of the formation of COS products from cellobiose (25 mM, 50 mM) and α-D-glucose 1-phosphate (10-100 mM) was performed using the CdP from Clostridium cellulosi. A mechanism-based, Michaelis-Menten type mathematical model was developed to describe the kinetics of the iterative enzymatic glycosylation of cellobiose. The mechanistic model was combined with an empirical description of the DP-dependent self-assembly of the COS into insoluble cellulose. The hybrid model thus obtained was used for kinetic parameter determination from time-course fits performed with constraints derived from initial rate data. The fitted hybrid model provided excellent description of the experimental dynamics of the COS in the DP range 3-6 and also accounted for the insoluble product formation. The hybrid model was suitable to disentangle the complex relationship between the process conditions used (i.e., substrate concentration, donor/acceptor ratio, reaction time) and the reaction output obtained (i.e., yield and composition of soluble COS). Model application to a window-of-operation analysis for the synthesis of soluble COS was demonstrated on the example of a COS mixture enriched in DP 4.

conclusionsThe hybrid model of CdP-catalyzed iterative glycosylation is an important engineering tool to study and optimize the biocatalytic synthesis of soluble COS. The kinetic modeling approach used here can be of a general interest to be applied to other iteratively catalyzed enzymatic reactions of synthetic importance.