Jaroslaw Blaszczyk
Centre of Molecular and Macromolecular Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland
Title: Unexpected opening of the glycosylation site in hexagonal form of CAL-B. Is it functionally related?
Biography
Biography: Jaroslaw Blaszczyk
Abstract
We discovered the new, hexagonal crystal form of lipase B from Candida antarctica (CAL-B). The NAG (N-acetyl-D-glucosamine) molecules, which were closing the glycosylation site in the orthorhombic form, in our hexagonal structure, unexpectedly, adopt an open conformation. We do not know whether the opening and closing of the glycosylation site by the ‘lid’ NAG moiety, could be related to the opening and closing of the active center of the enzyme upon substrate binding and product release. The packing of molecules in the hexagonal crystal makes the active center of the enzyme very well accessible for the ligand, which, in our opinion, may help in the enzyme-ligand complex formation. Financial support by the Polish National Science Center, grant No. DEC-2012/05/B/ST4/00075, is gratefully acknowledged. The structure is available at the PDB, entry 4ZV7.