A modified consensus approach to mutagenesis inverts the cofactor specificity of Bacillus stearothermophilus lactate dehydrogenase.

Lactate dehydrogenase from Bacillus stearothermophilus is specific for NAD+. There have been several attempts to alter the cofactor specificity of this enzyme, but these have yielded enzymes with relatively low activities that still largely prefer NAD+. A modified consensus approach was used to create a library of phylogenetically preferred amino acids situated near the cofactor binding site, and variants were screened for their ability to utilize NMN+. A triple mutant (Mut31) was discovered that proved to be more catalytically efficient than wild-type. Mut31 was also better at utilizing NAD+ than the wild-type enzyme and was weakly active with NADP+ and NMN+. An analysis of single amino acid substitutions suggested that all three mutations worked in a concerted fashion to yield robust cofactor utilization. When two previously identified amino acid substitutions were introduced into the Mut31 background, the resultant quintuply substituted enzyme not only utilized NADP+ far better than the wild-type enzyme, it actually inverted its preference for NAD+ and NADP+.