Characterization of bifunctional L-glutathione synthetases from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and Actinobacillus succinogenes for efficient glutathione biosynthesis

Glutathione (GSH), an important bioactive substance, is widely applied in pharmaceutical and food industries. In this work, two bifunctional L-glutathione synthetases (GshF) from Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae (GshFAp) and Actinobacillus succinogenes (GshFAs) were successfully expressed in Escherichia coli BL-21(DE3). Similar to the GshF from Streptococcus thermophilus (GshFSt), GshFAp and GshFAs can be applied for high titer GSH production because they are less sensitive to end-product inhibition (Ki values 33 and 43 mM, respectively). The active catalytic forms of GshFAs and GshFAp are dimers, consistent with those of GshFPm (GshF from Pasteurella multocida) and GshFSa (GshF from Streptococcus agalactiae), but are different from GshFSt (GshF from S. thermophilus) which is an active monomer. The analysis of the protein sequences and three dimensional structures of GshFs suggested that the binding sites of GshFs for substrates, L-cysteine, L-glutamate, gamma-glutamylcysteine, adenosine-triphosphate, and glycine are highly conserved with only very few differences. With sufficient supply of the precursors, the recombinant strains BL-21(DE3)/pET28a-gshFas and BL-21(DE3)/pET28a-gshFap were able to produce 36.6 and 34.1 mM GSH, with the molar yield of 0.92 and 0.85 mol/mol, respectively, based on the added L-cysteine. The results showed that GshFAp and GshFAs are potentially good candidates for industrial GSH production.