Among various techniques of immobilization, EDC/NHS cross linking is a simple and single step process for covalent coupling between enzymes and nanoparticles. Here we describe immobilization of lipase on amine functionalized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs-NH 2 ) to attain enhanced activity and stability. To achieve a suitable orientation, it is necessary to understand the contribution of different functional groups on the enzyme's surface. Therefore, the crystal structure of lipase was analyzed using a computational method (PyMOL) to find the exposed acidic amino acid residues that can be exploited for conjugation. Confirmation of conjugation (AuNP-NH 2 -lipase) was determined by various techniques such as agarose gel electrophoresis, zeta measurement, FTIR-spectroscopy and TEM. Further, catalytic parameters (V max , K M,app , K cat , and K cat /K M,app ) have been studied to establish activity enhancement upon immobilization. The data also suggested that, AuNP-NH 2 -lipase has desirable improved parameters such as temperature and storage stability. The thermodynamic parameters for the kinetics of deactivation
IntroductionEnzymes have wide application in food, detergent, medicine, diagnostics, energy and many other industrial sectors due to their catalytic activity under mild conditions, specicity, costeffectiveness and greener production conditions. 1,2 However industrial application of free enzymes is restricted due to high lability, poor stability and problems in their recovery and reuse.
3Immobilization is the effective way to overcome these limitations and extend the horizon of their applications.4 Various methods of immobilization include physical adsorption, ionic interaction, covalent bonding between support and enzyme or entrapment within the different matrices.5 Hydrophobic interactions, ionic interactions, hydrogen bonds, van der Waals interactions and solvation are the major forces responsible for non-covalent interactions. Except for covalent attachment, the above mentioned techniques mainly rely on weak interactions, therefore enzymes are prone to detachment from the support surface with time. Covalent bonding mediated immobilization helps in improving enzyme activity at the cost of loss of conformational integrity.6 A very simple method of crosslinking biomolecules to nanoparticles relies on EDC/NHS coupling in which carbodiimides mediate formation of amide bond between carboxy and amine groups.7 High solubility in water, ease to remove byproducts, zero length cross linking molecule and single step reaction provides an edge over other methods in EDC/NHS coupling.8 Several enzymes have been conjugated using this strategy, but they lack in their structure based consideration prior to immobilization. Improper orientation aer immobilization ultimately affects activity; therefore, it is highly essential to understand the structure of protein before immobilization. One of the rationale approaches is to exploit specic surface amino acids for conjugating enzymes with the nanosurface so that the catalytic p...