Structure-guided multi-domain engineering of glucose dehydrogenase for enhanced catalytic efficiency and cofactor regeneration.

Abstract

Glucose dehydrogenase (GDH) is a key enzyme for NAD(P)H cofactor regeneration in industrial biocatalysis. However, conventional engineering approaches are frequently constrained by limited catalytic efficiency and excessive enzyme loading, which collectively compromise process economics and hinder large-scale deployment. In this study, we performed structure-guided rational design by targeting three functionally discrete domains of GDH, including the substrate-binding region, the cofactor-binding pocket, and the interdomain communication interface. An engineered variant GDH-M6 was constructed, which manifests a 35-fold enhancement in catalytic efficiency relative to the wild-type enzyme. In the biocatalytic synthesis of the pivotal chiral intermediate for R-lipoic acid, GDH-M6 reduced enzyme loading by more than 90% and allowed a doubling of the substrate concentration. As a result, overall reaction productivity was substantially increased and the GDH-M6 outperformed wild-type GDH as well as all previously reported mutants under comparable conditions. Notably, the domain-engineering paradigm established herein provides a broadly applicable toolkit for augmenting the catalytic performance of dehydrogenases, and offers a structural blueprint for resolving analogous kinetic bottlenecks that commonly arise in NAD(P)⁺-dependent enzymes utilized for industrial cofactor regeneration.