In silico Characterization of Industrial Important Cellulases using Computational Tools

Abstract

Cellulases refer to a class of enzymes produced majorly by fungi, bacteria and protozoans that catalyze cellulolysis. Cellulase enzyme is used extensively in various industries, especially in textile, food and in the bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes to alcohol. The extensive use of cellulase in industries depends on the cost of the enzyme and hence considerable research is being carried out to isolate better microbial strains and also to develop new fermentation processes with the aim to reduce the product cost. Cellulases from different strains of Pseudomonas species were analyzed using computational tools. The physicochemical properties of the selected cellulases were analyzed by using ExPASy’s ProtParam tool and it was found that the molecular weight (M.Wt) ranges between 40927.4-100058.7 Da. Isoelectric Points (pI) of all the organisms were found to be acidic in nature. The aliphatic index infers that all the cellulases are stable. The negative value of GRAVY indicates that there will be better interaction with water. The secondary structure prediction was done by SOPMA which showed that random coils dominated all the other conformations. Multiple sequence analysis and evolutionary analysis of cellulases were carried out by CLC workbench. The Phylogenetic analysis was done using Neighbour joining method. The 3D structures of cellualses were obtained by ESyPred 3D server.

Keywords: Cellulases, Enzymes, ProtParam, SOPMA, ESyPred 3D.