The thermostable β-1,3-1,4-glucanase from Clostridium thermocellum improves the nutritive value of highly viscous barley-based diets for broilers.

1. Microbial β-1,3-1,4-glucanases improve the nutritive value of barley-based diets for poultry by effectively decreasing the degree of polymerisation of the anti-nutritive soluble β-glucans. Glycoside hydrolases (GHs) acting on recalcitrant polysaccharides display a modular architecture comprising a catalytic domain linked to one or more non-catalytic Carbohydrate-Binding Modules (CBMs). 2. GHs and CBMs have been classified in different families based on primary structure similarity (see CAZy webpage at http://www.cazy.org ). The role of CBMs is to anchor the appended GHs into their target substrates, therefore eliciting the efficient hydrolysis of structural carbohydrates. 3. Here we describe the biochemical properties of the family 16 GH from Clostridium thermocellum, termed CtGlc16A. CtGlc16A is a thermostable enzyme that specifically acts on β-1,3-1,4-glucans with a remarkable catalytic activity (38000 U/mg protein). 4. CtGlc16A, individually or fused to the family 11 β-glucan-binding domain of cellulase CtLic26A-Cel5E of C. thermocellum, was used to supplement a highly viscous barley-based diet for broilers. 5. The data showed that birds fed on diets supplemented with the recombinant enzymes displayed an improved performance when compared with birds given diets not supplemented with exogenous enzymes. However, inclusion of the non-catalytic CBMs had no influence on the capacity of CtGlc16A to reduce the anti-nutritive effects of soluble β-1,3-1,4-glucans. 6. The data suggest that at elevated dosage rates, CBMs might be unable to potentiate the catalytic activity of appended catalytic domains; this effect may only be revealed when feed enzymes are incorporated at low levels.