Environmental Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research Lucknow, India
Department of Biotechnology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University Lucknow, India.
Enzyme Haloalkane dehalogenase LinB mediates the metabolism of several HCH-isomers and also their PCCHs, which are formed by the activity of LinA. Two prototype LinB variants, type1 and type2, that differ by seven residues, and exhibit differences in their activity and substrate range, have been characterized earlier. In this report, we isolated a new variant, LinB-type3 from metagenome of contaminated soil, which differs from -type1 and -type2 by ten and six residues, respectively. Evaluation of its activity with six substrates revealed that it mediates the metabolism of β- and d-PCCH, but was not active for a-HCH, β-HCH, d-HCH and γ-PCCH. The report highlights the power of metagenomic approaches for the identification of novel gene variants.
Keywords: haloalkane dehalogenase, linB, hexachlorocyclohexane, metagenome, biotransformation.