Systematic Structure-Based Search for Ochratoxin-Degrading Enzymes in Proteomes from Filamentous Fungi
- Resource Type
- article
- Authors
- Ana Lúcia Leitão; Francisco J. Enguita
- Source
- Biomolecules, Vol 11, Iss 7, p 1040 (2021)
- Subject
- mycotoxin
ochratoxin A
ochratoxinase
biodegradation
structural biology
Microbiology
QR1-502
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2218-273X
(1) Background: ochratoxins are mycotoxins produced by filamentous fungi with important implications in the food manufacturing industry due to their toxicity. Decontamination by specific ochratoxin-degrading enzymes has become an interesting alternative for the treatment of contaminated food commodities. (2) Methods: using a structure-based approach based on homology modeling, blind molecular docking of substrates and characterization of low-frequency protein motions, we performed a proteome mining in filamentous fungi to characterize new enzymes with potential ochratoxinase activity. (3) Results: the proteome mining results demonstrated the ubiquitous presence of fungal binuclear zinc-dependent amido-hydrolases with a high degree of structural homology to the already characterized ochratoxinase from Aspergillus niger. Ochratoxinase-like enzymes from ochratoxin-producing fungi showed more favorable substrate-binding pockets to accommodate ochratoxins A and B. (4) Conclusions: filamentous fungi are an interesting and rich source of hydrolases potentially capable of degrading ochratoxins, and could be used for the detoxification of diverse food commodities.