A thermophilic and thermostable P-galactosidase activity was purified to homogeneity from crude extracts of the archaebacterium Suljiulobus sovuturicus, by a procedure including ion-exchange and affinity chromatography. The homogeneous enzyme had a specific activity of 116.4 units/mg at 75 'C with o-nitrophenyl P-galactopyranoside as substrate. Molecular mass studies demonstrated that the S. solfataricus P-galactosidase was a tetramer of 240 Ifr S kDa composed of similar or identical subunits. Comparison of the amino acid composition of pgalactosidase from S. solfataricus with that from Eschevichia culi revealed a lower cysteine content and a lower Arg/Lys ratio in the thermophilic enzyme. A rabbit serum, raised against the homogeneous enzyme did not crossreact with P-galactosidase from E. coli. The enzyme, characterized for its reaction requirements and kinetic properties, showed a thermostability and thermophilicity notably greater than those reported for P-galactosidases from other mesopbilic and thermophilic sources. More recently, a new P-galactosidase activity has been identified in E. colicells with LacZ deletion selected for growth on lactose [6]. This enzyme, termed ebg for evolved pgalactosidases, has a subunit molecular mass of 120 kDa, very close to that of the LacZ enzyme. However, the ebg protein has a hexameric and not a tetrameric structure, and the two enzymes are not immunologically related.In recent years, p-galactosidase activities from various microbial sources have been purified and characterized for their physicochemical properties, reaction requirements and substrate specificities [l, 71. Thermostable p-galactosidases [S ~ 1 I] have received considerable attention because of their possible utilization in the industrial processing of lactose-contain-4,51.

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The NAD(+)-dependent alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1) from the thermoacidophilic archaebacterium Sulfolobus solfataricus, DSM1617 strain (SSADH), has been purified and characterized. Its gene has been isolated by screening two S. Solfataricus genomic libraries using oligonucleotide probes. The encoding sequence consists of 1041 base pairs, and it shows a high preference for codons ending in T or A. The primary structure, determined by peptide and gene analysis, consists of 347 amino acid residues, yielding a molecular weight of 37,588. A level of identity of 24-25% was found with the amino acid sequences of horse liver, yeast, and Thermoanaerobium brockii alcohol dehydrogenases. The coenzyme-binding and catalytic and structural zinc-binding residues typical of eukaryotic alcohol dehydrogenases were found in SSADH with the difference that one out of the four structural zinc-binding Cys residues is substituted by Glu. The protein contains four zinc atoms per dimer, two of which are removed by chelating agents with a concomitant loss of structural stability.

The gene encoding a novel alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) that belongs to the short-chain dehydrogenase/ reductase (SDR) superfamily was identified in the extremely thermophilic, halotolerant gram-negative eubacterium Thermus thermophilus HB27. The T. thermophilus ADH gene (adh Tt ) was heterologously overexpressed in Escherichia coli, and the protein (ADH Tt ) was purified to homogeneity and characterized. ADH Tt is a tetrameric enzyme consisting of identical 26,961-Da subunits composed of 256 amino acids. The enzyme has remarkable thermophilicity and thermal stability, displaying activity at temperatures up to ϳ73°C and a 30-min half-inactivation temperature of ϳ90°C, as well as good tolerance to common organic solvents. ADH Tt has a strict requirement for NAD(H) as the coenzyme, a preference for reduction of aromatic ketones and ␣-keto esters, and poor activity on aromatic alcohols and aldehydes. This thermophilic enzyme catalyzes the following reactions with Prelog specificity: the reduction of acetophenone, 2,2,2-trifluoroacetophenone, ␣-tetralone, and ␣-methyl and ␣-ethyl benzoylformates to (S)-(؊)-1-phenylethanol (>99% enantiomeric excess [ee]), (R)-␣-(trifluoromethyl)benzyl alcohol (93% ee), (S)-␣-tetralol (>99% ee), methyl (R)-(؊)-mandelate (92% ee), and ethyl (R)-(؊)-mandelate (95% ee), respectively, by way of an efficient in situ NADH-recycling system involving 2-propanol and a second thermophilic ADH. This study further supports the critical role of the D37 residue in discriminating NAD(H) from NADP(H) in members of the SDR superfamily.Alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs) are of interest for the synthesis of the (S) or (R) enantiomers of alcohols from prochiral ketones (11). Since their early application in asymmetric synthesis using horse liver and yeast ADHs (13) and Thermoanaerobacter brockii ADH (ADH Tb ) (15), screening efforts have been directed at various species of microorganisms, which has resulted in new ADHs that have distinctive substrate specificity, good efficiency, and high enantioselectivity. Representative examples of enzymes from mesophilic microorganisms are the NADP-dependent (R)-specific ADH from Lactobacillus brevis (RADH Lb ), which is active on aryl ketones and whose crystal structure has recently been solved (29), the NAD-dependent (S)-specific 1-phenylethanol dehydrogenase from the denitrifying bacterium strain EbN1 (PED), which was characterized and crystallized (10), and the NAD-dependent ADH from Leifsonia sp. strain S749 (ADH Ls ), which was found to be active on (R)-sec alcohols, aryl ketones, aldehydes, and keto esters and whose gene has recently been cloned for protein expression in Escherichia coli (12). These enzymes are homotetrameric and belong to the short-chain dehydrogenase/ reductase (SDR) superfamily (14), which is characterized by ϳ250-residue subunits, a Gly motif in the coenzyme-binding regions, and a catalytic triad formed by the highly conserved residues Tyr, Lys, and Ser, to which an Asn residue has been added based on the proposal of Filling et al. (2), which was...