Expression and characterization of an enhanced recombinant heparinase I with chitin binding domain

Heparinase I (Hep I) can efficiently depolymerize heparin and heparin sulfate to oligosaccharides or unsaturated disaccharides, which resulted in loss of physiological function such as blood coagulation. In order to realize the immobilization of Hep I on chitin carriers, we cloned Hep I with the chitin binding domain (ChBD) as a chitin-affinity tag, and the Small Ubiquitin-like MOdifier (SUMO) linker as a solvation enhancer in different fusion sequence. DNA and protein gels suggested that 4 kinds of recombinants were successfully constructed and expressed in Escherichia coli ( E. coli ). And the triple functional heparinases isolated from cell lysate could be efficiently purified by chitin beads. After optimizing fermentation conditions, it gave the specific enzyme activities of 1.88   ±   0.11, 3.69   ±   0.45, 3.44   ±   0.38, and 2.73   ±   0.29   IU/mg total proteins for ChBD-Hep I, ChBD-SUMO-Hep I, SUMO-ChBD-Hep I, and ChBD-Hep I-SUMO, respectively, with unfractionated heparin as substrate. The optimal reaction temperature and pH were determined to be 30   °C and 7.0 for all the fusion enzymes. ChBD-SUMO-Hep I exhibited the maximum half-life (48   min) at 30   °C and best thermo-stability under 15–50   °C. All the fusion enzymes showed broad pH-stability in the range of 5.4–9.0.