The effects of human activity on climate change are evident in accelerated changes to global climatic conditions. As a result, there have been efforts to decrease human impact on the environment. This includes sustainable and environmentally friendly waste management systems, bioremediation of damaged ecosystems and biocatalysis as a replacement for conventional chemical synthesis in industries in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
One way to address these challenges is through the use of enzyme biotechnology in which proteins (enzymes) are used as industrial catalysts. Nitrilases are widely used enzymes with potential in the production of high-value fine chemicals including medicines, bioremediation and waste management. A problem with using enzymes in environmental remediation is that naturally occurring enzymes are susceptible to degradation and inactivation under harsh conditions. They can, however, be engineered to make them more tolerant of these conditions. Nitrilases have intrinsically robust, spiral structures that suggest that substantial improvements in stability are possible.
My name is Lenye Dlamini and my PhD study in the Structural Biology Research group at the University of Cape Town (UCT) concerns the engineering of a cyanide-degrading nitrilase enzyme that can be used to remediate cyanide waste in the textile, electroplating and gold-mining industries. In particular, cyanide is used in huge quantities in these industries and spills or unsafe disposal results in environmental degradation and causes harm (and occasionally death) to humans and livestock.
My study will use predictive biophysical methods based on structural knowledge of cyanide degrading nitrilases to measurably improve their tolerance of non-optimal temperature ranges and enhance the operational stability of the enzyme so that they can be routinely used for safe and cheap disposal of cyanide waste. The project builds on the work of Dr Andani Mulelu[1],2 and several of Prof Michael Benedik’s students at Texas A&M University who used directed evolution, a technique in which random amino acid mutations are introduced throughout the protein, to increase protein stability and ultimately led to the first structure of an enzyme of this type. My goal is to use this structure to identify specific amino acid changes that will lead to increased stability.
I am working from Prof Trevor Sewell’s (GCRF START Co-I) laboratory at UCT and the Electron Microscope Unit at the Aaron Klug Centre for Imaging and Analysis. My work is a component of the work on nitrilases being done by a large team of local and international collaborators (my first experience of collaborating with scientists outside of South Africa) that includes in South Africa: Dr Jeremy Woodward (GCRF START Co-I), Dr Gerhard Venter and Prof Roger Hunter at UCT, Prof Dean Brady at the University of the Witwatersrand, Dr Nishal Pharbhoo at UNISA; in Germany: Prof Andreas Stolz and Mr Erik Eppinger at the University of Stuttgart, Prof Markus Piotrowski of the Ruhr University at Bochum, and Prof Achilleas Frangakis at Goethe-University, Frankfurt.
While the direct impact of my research project is environmental, it has broader implications in a variety of industries. There is growing demand for biological agents and processes that will replace conventional processes of managing waste and chemical synthesis. Enzymes, including the nitrilases, have taken centre-stage in this regard and present not just an environmentally benign alternative but one that produces better reaction products (they are highly specific in the enantiomers and regions on compounds that they bind to, leading to more specific reaction products).
It is critical that we understand and can adapt enzymes for these new uses. Nitrile-containing compounds are widespread in nature and are also utilised in industries including agriculture, mining, pharmaceuticals and the plastics and paper industry. Most nitrile-containing compounds are toxic, mutagenic, and carcinogenic. We are trying to design a way that will result in the use of harmful compounds as substrates for the catalysis of useful compounds in a sustainable and environmentally benign manner.
In my research on nitrilases, I am building on previous research skills I gained through my MSc. project which also benefitted from access to the UK’s national synchrotron, Diamond Light Source (Diamond). Through supporting research, workshops, mentoring and supervision, and other aspects of these labs, the GCRF START grant has also, by extension, supported the development of my research career. In addition, workshops presented by structural biologists from Diamond in South Africa, have enabled me to acquire skills that include molecular biology techniques, protein crystallography, electron microscopy and data collection at synchrotrons.
My Master’s research was in rational drug design against Mycobacterium tuberculosis using molecular and structural biology techniques. One of the main outcomes of my study was the crystal structure of thiamine monophosphate kinase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, solved at a resolution of 2.19 Å, with data collected using the i04 beamline at Diamond with access through the GCRF START grant.
Commenting on the research outlined above, Prof Trevor Sewell, Lenye’s supervisor, said,
“The work of the last 30 years has provided a wealth of knowledge about the structures, occurrence and chemistry of members of the ubiquitous nitrilase superfamily of enzymes. This has led to their widespread use as industrial enzymes and a recognition that some superfamily members are potential drug targets. Even so, our understanding of their mechanism and our ability to introduce desirable properties through design is very limited. Lenye’s work seeks to surmount the barriers, leading to the ability to enhance at least one property of the cyanide degrading nitrilases, the thermostability, by design and then verify that the desired goal has been achieved experimentally using CryoEM and differential scanning calorimetry.”
Find out more about the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals here
About Lenye Dlamini
Lenye Dlamini was born and raised in Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland, which is also where she received her primary and high school education. Lenye was inspired into science at high school through her biology and chemistry teacher who, Lenye says, saw the potential in her and motivated her to work extra hard. Prior to embarking on her PhD studies, Lenye’s tertiary education was at the University of Pretoria in the laboratory of GCRF START Co-I, Prof Wolf-Dieter Schubert. Lenye is currently a PhD candidate in Medical Biochemistry in the Structural Biology Research group, Department of Integrative Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
[1] Mulelu, A. 2017. Factors involved in the oligomerisation of the cyanide dihydratase from Bacillus pumilus C1. University of Cape Town. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/24446
2 Sewell, BT, Frangakis, A, Mulelu, A and Reitz, J. (2017). The structure of the cyanide dihydratase (CynD) from Bacillus pumilus. Acta Cryst. A73, C1296. DOI: 10.1107/S2053273317082791