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α-L-Arabinofuranosidase (Abf) is a potential enzyme because of its synergistic effect with other hemicellulases in agro-industrial field. In this study, directed evolution was applied to Abf from Geobacillus vulcani GS90 (GvAbf) using one round error-prone PCR and constructed a library of 73 enzyme variants of GvAbf. The activity screening of the enzyme variants was performed on soluble protein extracts using p-nitrophenyl α-L-arabinofuranoside as substrate. Two high activity displaying variants (GvAbf L307S and GvAbf Q90H/L307S) were selected, purified, partially characterized, and structurally analyzed. The specific activities of both variants were almost 2.5-fold more than that of GvAbf. Both GvAbf variants also exhibited higher thermal stability but lower alkaline stability in reference to GvAbf. The structural analysis of GvAbf model indicated that two mutation sites Q90H and L307S in both GvAbf variants are located in TIM barrel domain, responsible for catalytic action in many Glycoside Hydrolase Families including GH51. The structure of GvAbf model displayed that the position of L307S mutation is closer to the catalytic residues of GvAbf compared with Q90H mutation and also L307S mutation is conserved in both variants of GvAbf. Therefore, it was hypothesized that L307S amino acid substitution may play a critical role in catalytic activity of GvAbf.

α-l-Arabinofuranosidases with an orchestral action of xylanolytic enzymes degrades the xylan in plant cell wall. In this study, heterologous expression, biochemical characterization, and synergistic action of α-l-Arabinofuranosidase from previously identified.Geobacillus vulcani GS90 (GvAbf) was investigated. The recombinant α-l-Arabinofuranosidase was overexpressed in Escherichia coli BL21 (λDE) and purified via His-tag Ni-affinity and size-exclusion chromatography. Optimum activity of the purified α-l-Arabinofuranosidase was obtained at pH 5 and at 70 °C. The GvAbf was active in a broad pH and temperature ranges; pH 4-9 and 30-90 °C, respectively. In addition, it retained most of its activity after an hour incubation at 70 °C and remained relatively stable at pH 3-6. GvAbf was quite stable against various metal ions. The kinetic parameters of GvAbf was obtained as V max and K m ; 200 U/mg and 0.2 mM with p-nitrophenyl-α-l-arabinofuranoside and 526 U/mg and 0.1 mM with sugar beet arabinan, respectively. The synergistic action of GvAbf was studied with commercially available xylanase on juice enrichment of apples, grapes, oranges, and peaches. The best juice enrichment in terms of clarity, reducing sugar content, and yield, was achieved with GvAbf and xylanase together compared to treatment with xylanase and GvAbf alone in all fruits. The treatment with GvAbf and xylanase together lead to an increased juice yield by 26.56% (apple), 30.88% (grape), 40.00% (orange) and 32.20% (peach) as well as having a significant effect on juice clarity by an increase of % transmittance 47.26, 25.98, 41.77, and 44.97, respectively. The highest reducing sugar level of fruit juices also obtained with GvAbf and xylanase together compared to treatment with xylanase and GvAbf alone in all types of fruits. GvAbf and xylanase together as simultaneous synergistic manner may have an exciting potential for application in fruit juice processing.

High-throughput aging studies with yeast as a model organism involve transposon-mutagenesis and yeast knockout collection, which have been pivotal strategies for understanding the complex cellular aging process. In this study, a chronologically long-lived Saccharomyces cerevisiae mutant was successfully obtained by using another high-throughput approach, evolutionary engineering, based on systematic selection in successive batch cultures under gradually increasing levels of caloric restriction. Detailed comparative physiological and transcriptomic analyses of the chronologically long-lived mutant and the reference strain revealed enhanced levels of respiratory metabolism, upregulation of genes related to carbohydrate metabolic processes, glycogen-trehalose pathways, stress response, and repression of protein synthesis-related genes in the long-lived mutant SRM11, already in the absence of caloric restriction. Interestingly, SRM11 had also significantly higher resistance to copper stress, and higher resistance to silver, ethanol, and 2-phenylethanol stresses than the reference strain. It also had lower ethanol production levels and an enhanced ethanol catabolism. To conclude, evolutionary engineering is another powerful high-throughput method for aging research, in addition to its widespread use in industrial strain development. Additionally, the interesting results revealed by this study about the potential relationship between longevity and various cellular properties are yet to be investigated further at molecular level.