A Computational Biology Study on the Structure and Dynamics Determinants of Thermal Stability of the Chitosanase from Aspergillus fumigatus

Environmentally friendly and efficient biodegradation with chitosanase for degrading chitosan to oligosaccharide has been gaining more importance. Here, we studied a chitosanase from Aspergillus fumigatus with potential for production, but does not have the ideal thermal stability. The structure predicted by the Alphafold2 model, especially the binding site and two catalytic residues, has been found to have a high similarity with the experimental structure of the chitosanase V-CSN from the same family. The effects of temperature on structure and function were studied by dynamic simulation and the results showed that the binding site had high flexibility. After heating up from 300 K to 350 K, the RMSD and RMSF of the binding site increased significantly, in particular, the downward shift of loop6 closed the binding site, resulting in the spatial hindrance of binding. The time proportions of important hydrogen bonds at the binding site decreased sharply, indicating that serious disruption of hydrogen bonds should be the main interaction factor for conformational changes. The residues contributing energetically to binding were also revealed to be in the highly flexible region, which inevitably leads to the decrease in the activity stability at high temperature. These findings provide directions for the modification of thermal stability and perspectives on the research of proteins without experimental structures.

Qian Wang, Song Liu, Kecheng Li, Ronge Xing, Xiaolin Chen, Pengcheng Li