The Holo-Transcriptome of the Zoantharian Protopalythoa variabilis (Cnidaria: Anthozoa): A Plentiful Source of Enzymes for Potential Application in Green Chemistry, Industrial and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology

Abstract

Marine invertebrates, such as sponges, tunicates and cnidarians (zoantharians and scleractinian corals), form functional assemblages, known as holobionts, with numerous microbes. This type of species-specific symbiotic association can be a repository of myriad valuable low molecular weight organic compounds, bioactive peptides and enzymes. The zoantharian Protopalythoa variabilis (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) is one such example of a marine holobiont that inhabits the coastal reefs of the tropical Atlantic coast and is an interesting source of secondary metabolites and biologically active polypeptides. In the present study, we analyzed the entire holo-transcriptome of P. variabilis, looking for enzyme precursors expressed in the zoantharian-microbiota assemblage that are potentially useful as industrial biocatalysts and biopharmaceuticals. In addition to hundreds of predicted enzymes that fit into the classes of hydrolases, oxidoreductases and transferases that were found, novel enzyme precursors with multiple activities in single structures and enzymes with incomplete Enzyme Commission numbers were revealed. Our results indicated the predictive expression of thirteen multifunctional enzymes and 694 enzyme sequences with partially characterized activities, distributed in 23 sub-subclasses. These predicted enzyme structures and activities can prospectively be harnessed for applications in diverse areas of industrial and pharmaceutical biotechnology.

An Alum-Free Jellyfish Treatment for Food Applications

“…The good firmness of the products could be due to the action of transglutaminases (TG) as binding agents, possibly previously present in JF tissues. TGs have already been found in other cnidarians (70) and their action to crosslink proteins should be favored in the pH range of 5-8 (71), very close to the brine pH conditions registered here (Table 3B).…”

Marine Bioprospecting: Enzymes and Stress Proteins from the Sea Anemones Anthopleura dowii and Lebrunia neglecta

“…Peptidases have proven helpful as additives in detergents, in the generation of products implemented in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, in analytical processes such as treating samples for proteomic analysis, and in the food industry [42][43][44]. In the CVE of A. dowii, we identified a probable cysteine protease with 16% coverage in its sequence.…”

“…Bioprospecting in these venomous marine invertebrates has traditionally focused on polypeptides with neurotoxic [33,34] and cytotoxic properties [35], with little attention given to other components of biotechnological interest, such as enzymes, amylases [36], chitinases [37], proteases [29,31], oxidoreductases [38,39], heat shock proteins [40], and structural proteins [41], which have been identified in their crude venom extracts (CVEs) and secretions. These enzymes can potentially be used to develop tools for medical and industrial applications [42,43].…”

Bioinformatics for Marine Products: An Overview of Resources, Bottlenecks, and Perspectives

“…Nucleic acid sequencing techniques are also used a great deal in marine biotechnology and, in particular, to search for new marine drugs, due to the combination and integration of genomics and transcriptomic approaches that aim to find and quickly annotate genes producing interesting compounds [121,122]. Moreover, genomics and transcriptomics have been proven to be useful for the characterization of marine species that are important in the production of secondary metabolites and enzymes of interest for industrial, pharmaceutical, and green biotechnology applications [123,124]. Some recent examples of such enzymes include the new flavin-dependent halogenase, isolated from a marine sponge metagenome [125] and several α-amylases isolated from a sea anemone microbial community [126], whereas metabolites range from derivatives of amino acids and nucleosides, macrolides, porphyrins, terpenoids to aliphatic cyclic peroxides, and sterols [127].…”