Figure 1

Structural overview of Cbh1 and CelD catalytic homologs active on cellulosic substrates. Panel A SDS–PAGE comassie-blue (CB) protein and carboxymethylcellulose congo-red (CR) enzyme activity staining of secreted Cbh1 and CelD proteins recovered from two-day shake-flask cultures. Cbh1 showed a strong activity against CMC while CelD showed lesser activity on CMC. Restraint-based modeling of Cbh1 and CelD identified a flexible catalytic loop and a lid-like loop obstructing the substrate tunnel. Panel B, cartoon representation of CelD, colored by secondary structure elements. Disulphide bonds are shown in ball-and-stick representation. Panel C, CelD/Cbh1 catalytic domain structural overlay. The active-cleft residues are shown as stick carbon atoms in yellow. The flexible catalytic loop, common to all GH7 cellobiohydrolases is shown in red and the three-residue lid-type insertion within the 94–103 loops only present in Cbh1 is drawn as sticks with carbon atoms in green. CelD (Panel D) and Cbh1 (Panel E) surface model prediction highlighting the catalytic substrate tunnel in blue and the obstructing lid-type loop in green. For a clearer view of the substrate channel, some residues at the protein surface were omitted. Alignment of the 94–103 lid-like and flexible catalytic loops of GH7-cellobiohydrolases (Panel F). All CelD like proteins with no CBD show a four amino acid deletion that opens the catalytic tunnel (shown in D and E).